


My Heart With You

by floatsodelicatelyunfinished (floatsodelicately)



Series: My Heart With You [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Bonding, F/M, Gen, Romantic Soulmates, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 22,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5506679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatsodelicately/pseuds/floatsodelicatelyunfinished
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fred kisses Hermione after a prank goes bad and they end up in a confusing situation. How long can they keep the secret when they don't even understand it? Soul bond Fremione story set during The Order of the Phoenix.</p><p>ABANDONED STORY - has not been updated in years, posted on here for posterity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just A Kiss?

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally posted on FF.net but was abandoned and adopted by a new author. This is an unfinished story with a couple of ficlets attached but I like it, even if it has been a few years since I've written anything for it. FF.net is such a negative site, I will be deleting my stories from there as I have no interest in reviewers lecturing me and calling me a whore for not finishing a story.  
> I hope you enjoy the story, I had a lot of fun writing it :)

> _"My love, the reason I survive...I keep you secretly" - My Heart With You - The Rescues._

It was a quiet day at Number 12 Grimmauld Place and Fred and George were lying on their beds, their ankles crossed and fingers laced together behind their heads, waiting for the tell-tale shriek of a prank well done. They didn't have to wait long although they recognised the person shrieking was not the one they had intended. Instead of Ron's pathetically wimpy scream, it was a feminine yelp. That wasn't good. The twins looked at each other and gulped. They pushed off of their beds and looked nervously at the door. There were three females staying at the house and any way this could turn out ended in a loud lecture, maybe some objects thrown at them. It wasn't their mother, she had stopped being shocked a while ago and settled for yelling at them straight away. It might have been Ginny although George was fairly certain he had seen her disappearing through the floo to Dean Thomas' house for lunch, so that left one person. Hermione Granger.

The time it took to make that deduction was enough for an angry and blue haired Hermione to make her way upstairs and to their bedroom. She wrenched the door open and stood there glowering at the twins. They smiled hesitantly before Fred started, "So Hermione…nice look you've got there-"

"-trying some new shampoo?" George finished.

Hermione moaned in frustration. "Why? Why do you keep doing this to me? First you turned every book I tried to read into a children's picture book,  _then_  you turned my bedroom Slytherin green and silver, including all of my clothes! Do you have any idea how long it took the change them all back?!"

"'Mione, we weren't pranking you! Honest!" George said, putting his hands out to her in surrender.

"Yeah," Fred continued, "you share a room with Ginny and we were trying to tease her about those Malfoy rumours we heard. We didn't mean to change all your clothes too…"

"Still! You shouldn't do it! You know how much it annoys her! And me, since I have to deal with her shouting about you two for the rest of the day! I mean really! Do you ever think about what you're doing before you do it?!"

"Hey!" Fred cried, "We do think! We think a lot! How do you suppose we make all of these products? They don't just appear! No! We work hard on them!"

"Freddie," George mumbled to him under his breath, "calm down, let her shout at us and then she'll get over it."

"Ha!" she burst out, "You two 'work hard'? You don't work hard at anything except Quidditch and your –" Fred had picked up this awfully strange habit of tuning Hermione's rants out and just staring at her. He couldn't remember when it started but he loved watching the little witch get all fired up over something, especially when he was the one triggering her outbursts. The way that her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled with passion and anger made him smile in pathetic lovesick ways that made her even more annoyed and of course, to Fred, more beautiful. Right now he was watching as her lips moved quickly and silently (only silent to him, George was wincing and shrinking back from the fury that this girl was radiating), he observed the way that her hair almost crackled as she got more worked up. Without realising it, he began to move closer to her. His eyes were darkened as he gazed down at her. Hermione looked up at him and as their eyes met, she stuttered and her expression softened. Her rant came to a slow stop as he took her face in his hands gently and moved towards her, angling her face up slightly as he pressed his lips to hers.

The kiss lasted a second, and then another and then another and the longer it went on the more awkward George felt. He was standing to the side, unsure of what was going on or what he was supposed to do. He was used to Fred zoning out during Hermione-lecture-time but  _this_ …this was a new development. He was staring at the pair in astonishment when something strange happened.

Fred felt Hermione tense up in shock as he kissed her, after a couple of seconds passed and she didn't pull away, he smiled slightly and moved a hand from her cheek to the back of her neck. She reached up to place her hands around his neck and with his other hand now on her waist he pulled her flush against his body. The kiss deepened and soon Fred remembered that his brother was in the room and pulled away regretfully.

He looked over at his brother, panting slightly, still holding Hermione's body against his. "Do you mind? I think I need to have a chat with 'Mione…"

"You need to do more than  _have a_   _chat_. Do you have any idea what just happened?" George asked, looking between Fred and Hermione.

"Well…erm…" Hermione attempted, blushing furiously, but Fred cut her off, "Well I kissed her, I should think that you would have noticed that happening, Gred."

"Well  _Forge_. Something pretty weird just happened and I don't mean the kiss, although, if that was what you think about when you zone out then we need to have a talk about keeping secret crushes from your twin," he smirked slightly, winking at Hermione who blushed even harder.

"What do you mean, George?" questioned Hermione.

"Erm,  _let's see_ …you two kissed and then this bright gold light shone through the whole room and then  _you two_  are just standing there making out like there's no tomorrow and you didn't just turn into a giant human lightbulb!" he cried, waving his arms about in panic.

Fred and Hermione looked at each other for a second and then snapped back to George. "What?!" they exclaimed in unison.


	2. Gold?

"It was this bright light. It was a couple of seconds and then you just started glowing. I don't know what it was though," George answered.

"Are you sure it was us?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"No, now you mention it, it could have been that kiss activated light I installed last week," he replied sarcastically before stomping his foot and hissing, " _of course I'm sure it was you!_ It was kind of hard to focus on anything else!"

They were all silent as they contemplated what could have happened. Hermione resolved to check the library later on, but for what, she wasn't sure.  _'Can I really look for 'golden lights' and 'kisses'? That's nothing to base anything on…'_  They were brought out of their reverie by Molly Weasley's loud voice carrying up the stairs, "Kids! Sirius! Remus! Dinner's ready! Get down here!"

They walked over to the door but George stopped before opening it and turned to them, "Best not mention this to anyone then, eh?"

Fred looked at Hermione and smiled, her brow was furrowed in thought as she considered what the previous events had meant. "That's probably best, brother. If you freaked out then there's no telling what Mum would say," he smirked.

"You might want to keep your paws away from each other then," George winked and stepped through the door and ran down the stairs leaving Fred and Hermione alone. George's comment brought their attention to the fact that they hadn't stopped touching since their kiss. Fred's arm was wrapped around her waist and he had been rubbing small circles into her skin with his thumb. Realising what he was doing, he quickly ripped his arm away and she whimpered slightly at the loss of contact.

Fred arched an eyebrow at her, "Can't get enough of me Miss Granger?"

"Oh shut it Fred!" she rolled her eyes and led him downstairs towards the kitchen. When they arrived at the table they found that the only two seats left were next to each other, so they sank down into the chairs. No one mentioned Hermione's blue-tinted hair, they had heard the shouting coming from the twins' room so they knew that the little witch was angry, not wanting to be on the receiving end of Hermione's ire, they let her be. Everyone soon tucked in to their dinner and Fred, George and Hermione slipped into a pensive silence once again.

"I don't like it…you two are too quiet. You've done something!" Ron declared, narrowing his eyes at the twins.

"What?" Fred yelped, looking around the table causing the others to jump, "We haven't done anything! Why would you say that? Nothing's happened! Eat your peas…" he glanced across at George who was trying to hide a smile, and then at Hermione who was fighting a blush.

"Ok," Sirius laughed, "because that wasn't suspicious…" he lowered his voice and asked George, "you didn't…do anything…did you?"

"No," he replied smiling, "now all of you be good and eat your peas like Freddie said."

The rest of them chuckled and dug into their food once more, though most of them eyed their peas distrustfully and left them untouched. They all finished their dinner and Ron and Harry filed out saying they were working on some Quidditch plays and needed to practice some more, Molly collected the dishes before charming them to wash themselves and following Arthur out into the living room. That left George, Fred, Hermione, Remus and Sirius still seated at the table talking about pranks pulled at Hogwarts as Remus cautioned Hermione that in her new role as a prefect she would have to try to rein the boys in a bit, something he said that he never managed to do with James and Sirius. Hermione gave a light sigh and placed her hand on Fred's knee absently. He smiled and wound an arm around her shoulder and pulled her slightly towards him. George hadn't noticed, or if he did, he didn't mention it. The two adults did though and looked at each other with some confusion. The two were acting awfully 'couple-y' and from the way that Molly and Arthur talked about the trio, it seemed that Ron and Hermione were expected to date, the men wondered whether the older Weasleys were mistaken and it was in fact Fred who was with Hermione.

"So when did you two start dating?" Sirius asked, leaning forward in his seat as he grinned puckishly at the pair.

"What?!" Hermione jumped, only to find that she was held in place by Fred's arm. "Erm…we're not…" she struggled and looked up at Fred.

"We kind of  _are_ …"

"Are we?"

"If you want to be…?

"Oh…ok…sure," she smiled at him and he beamed back at her. They turned towards Sirius and Fred laughed, "Does that answer your question?"

Sirius and Remus chuckled before Remus asked, "How did that happen? We kind of all assumed that…well…Hermione and Ron…were…you know…"

"Oh Merlin no!" Hermione cried. "What would give you that impression?"

"Well, Molly and Arthur seem to think that-"

"Well Mr and Mrs Weasley don't have to put up with him moaning at them to 'check' his homework for him. Ron and I would never work like that. No," she answered, folding her arms across her chest.

"But to answer your question, Professor Lupin," George smirked, "'Mione over here was shouting at us and then Fred went up and snogged her and then everything went gold and then we came down for our tea."

The two older men paled and looked at each other. "Gold, you say?"

"Like a light around them?"

"Yeah," Fred replied, "how did you know?"

Remus got up out of his seat and rushed out of the room, Sirius gaped at the pair as if they had told him that they were both secretly half-penguin. He recovered quickly and cleared his throat nervously. "Well, if it's what we fear has happened," the three teens blanched at the word 'fear', "it's very serious and ancient magic. We may have to work some things out…erm…ah! Remus! There you are!"

Remus re-entered the room carrying a large tome that he must have collected from the library. He placed it on the table and skimmed through the book at some speed, not looking at the room's other occupants who were all growing more anxious by the second. He hummed as he found the page and ran his finger down the text before stopping at the paragraph he was looking for. He span the book around and slid it over to Hermione, pointing at the passage. "Here."

Hermione and Fred examined the spot underneath Remus' finger and gasped.

"Soul bonds?"


	3. Headaches

"S-soul bonds?" Hermione repeated.

"Are you serious?" Fred asked.

Both teens were staring at the page in shock. The book said that after their kiss and the light, they were bonded. Their souls were linked. Hermione read and reread the text in hope that it would turn out to be a joke but the looks of astonishment on Remus and Sirius' faces told her that it was true.

"This is very old and rare magic that we're dealing with. We should bring your parents into this," Remus started.

"No!" Fred, George and Hermione cried in unison.

"Mum will kill me! And I mean _actually_  murder me!" Fred exclaimed.

Hermione looked to Remus and shrieked, "My parents won't understand this, I mean, they're not too happy with me and magic at the moment and-"

"What do you mean?" Fred interrupted.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked down at her hands. "Well…I kind of told them about what had happened last year with Voldemort coming back and that led to me explaining more things…like the tests to get to the philosophers stone and getting petrified and all the 'Notorious Mass Murderer Sirius Black' and all that jazz," she paused at seeing the confused faces of the men, "muggle thing, doesn't matter. Anyway, it took me long enough to convince them to let me go back to Hogwarts, this soul bond would be too much!"

Fred laid a hand on her back and she calmed instantly, Remus and Sirius looked at each other before Remus said, "One part of the bond is the need to touch. For now it's subtle and apparently for comfort, but the need will grow until being kept apart for too long will be seriously detrimental to your health. There's no way to tell how quickly this will happen, as we said, it's quite rare to find one's soul mate so there aren't many case studies. It could take days or weeks, perhaps even months depending on the intensity of the bond."

"Well what can we do to stop our health from 'deteriorating'?" Hermione asked.

Remus then became extremely awkward, struggling for the right words. Eventually, Sirius took over, "The bond needs to be…completed…"

Fred continued, "…and to complete it…we need to…?"

"Yes," sighed Remus, "I'm afraid that the bond can only be completed with the…consummation of the relationship."

At this, Fred and Hermione separated and blushed brightly. "Well…that's…" Hermione stammered.

Fred chuckled, "Don't worry 'Mione, I'm not going to jump you or anything."

Everyone relaxed slightly, still not knowing what to do. George observed them as Hermione relaxed into Fred's side before asking, "So what happens when we go back to school on Monday? They'll be apart for classes and in seperate dorms. Will the evenings be enough if the…need to touch grows?"

"Well, we'll have to cross that bridge if and when we come to it," Remus sighed.

* * *

The next evening after dinner, Hermione was sitting in the library reading the book that Remus had found for them as Ron and Harry were sitting at the coffee table playing a game of chess. She winced and moved her hand to her head as she felt a slight twinge of pain. She was determined to believe that it was just her being paranoid, that it wasn't the bond that was causing her pain, so she tried to ignore it. George opened the door to the library and walked inside tentatively. He glanced over at Ron and Harry before quietly asking Hermione if she felt ok.

Hermione looked confused before answering, "Erm…yes. I'm ok. Why?"

"Well…Fred has a headache and we were worried that…well, you know…" he shrugged, "but if you're ok then it must be just-"

"I have a headache. I didn't think that it would be…it's so soon after…"

"Maybe you should go upstairs then. I'll go find Sirius, Remus went home this morning."

George then left the room and the two boys looked over at Hermione. "So what did Fred want?" Ron asked.

"That was George, Ron. He was just asking me about a charm, they're working on a new product," she replied. Her answer seemed to satisfy Ron who turned back to the game, Harry didn't look like he believed her but left her alone anyway, he figured she would tell them if it was important. "Well…I'm going to go upstairs…to, erm…not be here," she rushed out of the room before they could question her poor not-quite-excuse.

She soon reached Fred and George's room and knocked on the door. Fred opened it after a couple of seconds and sighed in relief when he saw her, "Come in," he said and stepped aside. The tension between them was different than it had been the day before, instead of Hermione's anger and Fred's nervousness, they both felt awkward with the comfort they felt just from being in the same room. Hermione shuffled and looked down at her socks. Fred sat down on his bed and motioned for her to sit next to him and she did so hesitantly. He let out a groan and laid back, "Come on Granger, we might as well get used to this, it's not going away any time soon," he grinned.

She let out a small laugh and lay down next to him. "Sorry, it's just weird, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it.  _Believe me_ , I do…"

He turned over and wrapped an arm around her waist, the feeling of relief it brought them prevented them from feeling awkward about their new closeness. Their headaches cleared quickly and they easily drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"FRED! HERMIONE!"

The couple woke up to the outraged screams of Molly Weasley.


	4. Quite Chummy

Sirius and George had been on their way upstairs to talk to Fred and Hermione when they heard Molly shouting at them, the two shared a look and then hurried into the room. Sirius waved his wand, casting silencing and locking charms over the room. At Molly's questioning expression he said, "I thought this was a discussion best had in private…"

She huffed and glared at her son, "Frederick Gideon Weasley! What are you doing  _in bed_  with  _Hermione_?!"

"We were sleeping, Mother. Well," he smirked, "we were, but then there was this loud shrieking sound that woke us-"

Hermione smacked him on the arm, "Don't be rude Fred! Mrs Weasley, it really wasn't what it looked like...actually it was…but not really.  _Oh Merlin_ ," she buried her face in her hands.

"Mum," Fred began, "'Mione and I are together. We had a nap together. That is all. As you can see, our virtue is still intact." He smiled playfully at her, "Look! On top of the covers, clothed and everything!"

"Be that as it may, I don't think it's appropriate for you to be alone in a bedroom together!" Molly insisted.

Sirius looked at the pair who had sprung up from the bed when they woke up, "Fred, I really think that you should tell your mother."

"NO!" the three teenagers cried.

"Tell me what? Fred?  _What did you do?!_ "

"Nothing, Mum! I didn't do anything! Ok so I sort of did, but not really," he looked over at the Marauder, "thanks Sirius, like this wouldn't be awkward enough."

"Mrs Weasley, Fred really didn't do anything. It just happened and we still don't really understand how we're going to work everything out-"

"OHH!" Molly screamed again, "Oh my dear child! Hermione, are you pregnant?!"

"P-pregnant?" Hermione stuttered.

"Oh Merlin! Not even out of Hogwarts and you're expecting! Fred, how could you do this to Hermione?! Poor dear, we'll be here all the way-"

Sirius barked a laugh, "Molly, I really think you're getting ahead of yourself. You don't need to bother yourself about grandkids just yet," he said with a wink to Hermione, who was blushing profusely.

"Oh, what is it then? It can't be that bad, can it?"

When neither Hermione nor Fred spoke up, Sirius stepped in again. "Molly, how much do you know about soul bonds?"

* * *

The next morning, everyone was gathered in the living room, the adult Weasleys were chatting in the corner with Sirius, Ron and Harry were playing against Ginny and Dean in a game of Exploding Snap. Remus and Hermione were sitting on the sofa sharing the morning paper as Fred sat in front of Hermione looking over his notebook with George. Molly had kept shooting happy looks over at Fred and Hermione ever since she found out that they were soul bonded. She looked fondly at her son and his soul mate as they sat together peacefully, her hand idly playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. "My son found his soul mate!" she had cried, running up to the pair and gripping them in a tight, forceful hug. She knew that it was extremely rare to find a person's true mate and that the bond was stronger than any other magical bond out there.

The room was relatively quiet until Ron looked over at the seating area. "Looking awfully chummy there Fred," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I'd say we are looking quite chummy," he smirked back, "wouldn't you dear?" he asked, leaning his head back on Hermione's knee to look at her.

"Mhmm, quite chummy, I'd say," she responded her attention still on the culture section.

Ron looked stunned, he had expected shock, denial, maybe even disgust, not  _that_. He stammered a response, "So you two are-?"

"Yes," they answered in unison.

"But I thought that you and Viktor were-"

Hermione sighed, folding the paper down onto her lap, "Viktor is my friend. Nothing more."

"Right!" Molly clapped her hands, "We've got to go to Diagon Alley to get the rest of your school supplies. Everyone got your lists?"

As a group, the kids all produced their lists from their pocket as proof, one by one they filed through the fireplace, all flooing over to finish their shopping. When Hermione stumbled out of the floo, Ginny grabbed her by the sleeve and pulled her towards Madame Malkins' to pick up their robes. "You do realise that you'll have to tell me everything right?" she grinned.

"Everything?"

"Oh! Ew, no! Nevermind!" Ginny grimaced, apparently her love of gossip did not extend to that of her brother's love life, something for which Hermione was grateful. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk about her relationship with Fred, it was just that it was a strange relationship and she wasn't a fan of gossip anyway. Sharing a room with the self-proclaimed Queens of Gossip, Lavender and Parvarti can do that to a girl. She only dreaded what rumours would fly about when they got back to Hogwarts and word got around that they were together. They couldn't exactly hide it, whenever they weren't concentrating on staying apart, they just came together. It was almost as if they were magnetised. Even Ron had noticed and that boy could be  _quite_  dense sometimes.

Hermione laughed breezily and followed Ginny inside the shop, preparing for a gruelling day of shopping in the back-to-school crowds.

* * *

Hermione's headache was back, it wasn't much, just a slight discomfort but Remus had said that it might be better to have more contact for smaller pains rather than wait until the need becomes extreme. So she resolved to go to Fred, she had been tossing and turning for a few hours and found that she just  _could not_  get to sleep. She listened for Ginny's breathing to determine whether it would be safe to sneak out of the room, she heard the sounds of deep breathing and a soft snore and decided that Ginny was dead to the world. She cautiously got out of bed and started to make her way to the bedroom door before she heard the faint pop of apparition. Startled, she span around to see Fred looking at her now-empty bed in confusion.

"What are you doing in here?" she whispered.

"Coming to see you, why are you creeping out of here?"

"Going to see you…"

"Ah," he grinned, "it seems that great minds think alike then? Come on," he said as he laid back on her bed. She curled up beside him and he coiled his arm around her in the way that was quickly becoming familiar to her.

"Fred?" she breathed.

"Yes?" he replied sleepily.

"What are we going to do at Hogwarts? We go back tomorrow and we can't exactly do this can we?"

She felt him shrug from behind her, "I don't know to be honest. Lupin mentioned something to Dumbledore and McGonagall at the last Order meeting-"

"They know? Oh my goodness!"

"Shh shh, don't worry. Good ol' Dumbles will keep our secret, Lupin said that he talked about this book that he has in his office and we should go see him after the welcoming feast."

"Oh, ok then. Night Fred," she yawned.

"Night 'Mione."


	5. Back To Hogwarts

"Ew! I don't want to see this! Get up, you two!" Ginny said as she opened the curtains.

"Ergh," Fred grumbled, shielding his eyes from the light, "why do people always think we're…you know? Is everyone in this family a pervert?"

"Nope, just you. Now get out before Mum catches you."

"Too late," he said, reattaching himself to Hermione who was trying to get out of bed, "She already found us, we have her blessing. Now give me ten more minutes."

Hermione chuckled and twisted around, pulling the pillow from under his head and swatting him with it. "Get up, Fred. We've got to get ready and head to the train station before we miss the train." The girls laughed as he protested under his breath as he followed them down to breakfast.

* * *

Fred and George were packing the last of their products and ingredients quickly while they tried to remember where they were all hidden. "I think I put some behind the wardrobe," George said as he shuffled out from under his bed with the bag of Venomous Tentacula seeds that they had bought from Mundungus. Fred reached his arm down the back of the wardrobe and felt for the hidden ingredients.

"So, this thing with Hermione…how is it going to work when we get to school?" he asked, kneeling in front of his almost-full suitcase.

"Got it," said Fred, pulling out a small box of Knarl quills, "I'm not really sure. Lupin talked to Dumbledore for us at the last meeting, we just have to go to his office after the feast. It might be best if you come too, you 'll have about as many questions as we do."

"So I take it there'll be lots of sleepovers," he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at his brother.

"Oh, shut it," Fred laughed, tossing him the box. "Did you tell anyone?"

"I told Lee. Not the soul mate thing, just that you two were together. Don't think he believed me though," he laughed, "you might need to be very  _public_ to convince him that you've snagged Granger."

"I'm not about to snog her in front of everyone in the middle of the common room!" Fred joked.

George fastened their trunks and stood to leave, "You want to though," he winked.

"KIDS! WE NEED TO GO NOW!"

The twins bewitched their trunks to fly themselves downstairs, narrowly missing a lecture from their mother as Ginny flung herself towards the wall and out of the way. "Sorry Gin!" they called simultaneously. They made their way downstairs towards the rest of the teens.

"We need a guard to travel to King's Cross?" Harry asked the others.

" _You_  need a guard," Hermione corrected. She spotted Fred and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Hi."

"Hi," he smiled back.

George made a gagging noise which caused Ginny and Harry to laugh, Ron still looked a little green about their relationship and frowned before following the group out of the room and into the hall where the adults/Order members/Harry's guard were waiting ready to leave. The noise that everyone was making drowned out the screeches of Mrs Black's portrait as she hollered and wailed from behind the slightly opened curtain. " _Shut. Up. Mother!_ " Sirius bellowed before transforming into a big black dog, hopping over various trunks and running to Harry's side (after giving a friendly sniff to Crookshanks).

"No, Sirius! Dumbledore said that you weren't to come with u-," she paused and huffed at the dog as he somehow gave her a look that said 'You won't win this, don't even try' with his puppy-dog eyes. "Fine!"

And so they left, Harry first with Mrs Weasley, Tonks and Snuffles, then Ron and Hermione with Mr Weasley and Fred, George and Ginny arriving shortly after with Remus. After saying their goodbyes and being warned repeatedly to 'be careful', they got onto the train. Lee ran up to the twins and greeted them warmly before looking at George and saying "I still don't believe what you said about Fred and Her-oh!" he stopped at seeing their entwined hands, "So I guess it is true?" they nodded, "That's great! And Hermione, you're a prefect! Does that mean you'll be going easy on us?" he asked half-teasingly, half-hopefully.

Fred laughed, "Oh, I don't think there's much chance of that happening. Anyway, we should go find a compartment, it'll be a bit of a squeeze though since-"

Ron interrupted him, "Herms and I have to go to the prefects' compartment."

Hermione winced at the nickname and the twins and Lee had to stifle a laugh. "Yes, we do. I'll see you later?"

"Wait a second," Fred smirked mischievously.

"Oh no," George sighed, "come on guys," he said to the others before leading them away from the couple.

"What is it?" asked Lee worriedly.

"Nothing bad, they're just about to get quite sickening," he sniggered.

"What do you mean?" Lee questioned again and turned back to look only to see Fred and Hermione attached in a quite passionate kiss, with Ron, who had refused to leave, looking away awkwardly. "Oh, that…"

"Yeah, that. Sharing a room with those two is certainly going to be an adventure…"

"Sharing a room? You mean they're…?"

"Oh no! They've only been dating less than a week. They just, erm, like to be around each other a lot. They have sleepovers." George had never been good at lying to Lee, he, Ginny and Hermione were the only ones that the twins found it impossible to lie to.

"But they won't be able to carry on back at Hogwarts." Lee shrugged.

"Trust me, they'll find a way."

* * *

After the sorting ceremony and the welcoming feast, the students quietened down as Dumbledore took to his lectern. They listened half-heartedly to his greetings and warnings that the forbidden forest is still very much forbidden and no magic is to be used in the hallways. He introduced the returning teacher for Care of Magical creatures, a Professor Grubbly-Plank and moved on, "We are also pleased to welcome the our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge." Dumbledore waited for the polite round of applause before moving on.

Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione, "She was at my trial, she works for Fudge." Hermione looked outraged that this Umbridge woman was taking their class, ' _This has to be Fudge's doing_ ,' she thought, ' _Voldemort's back and now the Ministry is interfering with the school!_ ' She was fuming internally and as if he knew, Fred moved his leg so that their knees touched lightly, not enough for people to notice, but enough to  _hopefully_ calm her down a touch. He smiled smugly as he heard her sigh in relaxation.

"Hem, hem…" the incredibly pink woman interrupted the headmaster. Teachers and students alike were looking on in shock. "Thank you headmaster for those kind words of welcome…" she continued a stiffly rehearsed speech and sat down, not seeing that many students were shocked by the speech that had definitely confirmed Hermione's suspicions. The Ministry was definitely interfering at Hogwarts.

* * *

Fred and Hermione made their way to Dumbledore's office after the feast had ended and the prefects escorted the first years to the various common rooms ahead of the other students. It had taken a heated argument between Ron and Hermione for him to accept that it was his job as she had to go meet with the headmaster, Ron insisting that he should go too, Hermione reminding him that it was not any of his business. Fred decided to keep out of it, if people knew that they were going to see Dumbledore then that would raise suspicions about their relationship.

They reached the gargoyle that guarded the staircase to the office and paused. No one had given them the password. Fred, after remembering his previous trips to the office, started shouting out random sweet names before landing on the one that worked as the gargoyle slid slowly away from the stone stairs. He reached for Hermione's hand and led her up the narrow staircase and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Fred opened the door and walked inside, pulling Hermione along with him as she seemed to dawdle nervously by the door.

"Please, sit." They sat in the chairs in front of his desk. "Let's get on with this then shall we?"

"Yes sir"

"Of course, sir"

Dumbledore rose from his seat and walked over to a reading stand that held a large, old book. He picked it up and returned to his desk. "This is a book of bonds," he said, "it contains a list of those who are bonded in the way that Mr Lupin told me that we believe the two of you are. Last week, I noticed two new names. I'm happy to say that you two are indeed soul mates." Dumbledore smiled at them. Fred and Hermione beamed back, though slightly wide-eyed with the shock of having it confirmed by a magical book. "Now, as for the sleeping situation. Remus informed me that the two of you are sleeping together?"

Fred and Hermione spluttered in shock. "No. No. We aren't…we haven't…erm…no."

The headmaster chuckled, "Forgive me, I didn't mean it like that. Although, it does make my next offer a little bit easier to make."

"What do you mean, Professor?" asked Hermione, both she and Fred looked very confused, yet relieved that they didn't have to have a sex-talk with their aged teacher.

"Well, dear. You can either stay in your separate dormitories or I can set you up in one of the married quarters in Gryffindor Tower."

"Married quarters?" Fred asked.

"Yes, they haven't been used in a while, not since it was more normal for witches and wizards to be married at a young age. But they will do very nicely, I think."

Fred and Hermione looked at each other briefly before Hermione looked back at Dumbledore, "I think it would be best to stay in our separate dorms, people would ask a lot of questions if we were to start living together so soon after we started dating."

"Yeah," Fred continued, "Mum thought that I'd knocked her up when she found out about us."

"Fred!" she hissed, staring at him before nodding slightly toward their headmaster.

Fred flushed the famous Weasley red before mumbling an apology. Dumbledore laughed loudly, "It's quite alright, I do understand your hesitancy. Although that shouldn't be a problem for too long. You are already  _technically_  married and it would just be a matter of time before-" he looked up from the various parchments that he had collected for Hermione since he believed that she might want to research the bond more. Seeing their shell-shocked faces, he stopped.

"Married?" Fred breathed.

There was a moment of silence.

"We're married?!" Hermione screeched.


	6. Mr and Mrs Lazy Bones

Dumbledore seemed flustered as he looked at the couple, "I'm sorry, I thought you knew about that. Erm…lemon drop?"

"No, I don't want a lemon drop!" Hermione shrieked, jumping up from her chair and pacing the room. Fred sat back in his seat, staring blankly in front of him at Fawkes who was perched on his stand and preening his feathers. "Married? Married as in married?"

"Yes, Miss Granger. I'm afraid so. After a revision in the laws concerning bonds of this nature, the marriages that come from this connection are registered at the Ministry automatically. It seems that this is not well-known, although considering that it is so rare, that isn't that surprising…"

Hermione's head snapped up at the mention of the Ministry, "So people at the Ministry know?"

"No one would find out about your marriage without looking for that certificate, you needn't worry about people finding out. I have gathered these papers on your bond, I thought you might want to look over them," he said, passing Hermione the stack of parchment.

"Yes sir, thank you. I…we should get back…" she walked through the office door without waiting for Fred. He was still staring at Fawkes. Dumbledore looked sympathetically at the boy, "Mr Weasley, I believe you should be getting back to your fellow lions?"

"Yes, of course Professor," he said absently, slowly walking towards the exit.

"And Mr Weasley?" Dumbledore called after him, "Congratulations on your relationship, Miss Granger is a fine young woman."

"She is." Fred smiled, "Mum's still going to kill me though, she loves a good wedding."

* * *

Fred walked into his dormitory to see George sitting anxiously on his bed, "You ok?" he asked.

"Oh Fred! There you are! Hermione tore through the common room looking really freaked out and I couldn't reach her before she disappeared and then you weren't there so I didn't know if-"

"Woah Georgie! Calm down. Told you that you should have come with us," he smiled at his brother, though it didn't quite meet his eyes, "it was very… _informative_ …"

George had calmed down from his panicked outburst and sat back down on his bed. They were the only two in the dorm as Lee was still in the common room chatting with Alicia and Angelina and the other boys that shared the dormitory with them had been allowed to move rooms after several complaints to McGonagall and a minor explosion caused by the twins and Lee's experiments. "So what did Dumbles say?"

"Well, we are now 'Mr and Mrs Frederick Weasley', apparently…" Fred laughed awkwardly, still trying to get over his shock at the situation.

"Mr and Mrs? Wow, that kiss really did a number on you two, eh?" George exhaled.

"Yeah…Dumbledore offered to move us into some married quarters and when we asked why he just said 'blah blah blah, you're technically married, blah blah blah' like it was no big deal," Fred said before collapsing face first into his pillow.

"So what are you gonna do?"

"About sleeping? Not sure…sneak her into here? I can't exactly stay in her dorm, those other girls would go mad."

"No, I mean about the marriage thing."

"Well…nothing. I think we'll just stay married. It's kind of official, registered with the Ministry and everything."

"Oh…So when will I be seeing the lovely Mrs Weasley again?" George grinned.

Fred barked a laugh, "However long it takes for her to stop freaking out about it."

"She did seem pretty upset," George remarked.

"Yeah, I was more in shock but she went straight into panic mode. She shouted at Dumbledore…"

"Ha!  _Prefect Granger_  shouted at the headmaster?!" George exclaimed. "Oh, now I really regret not coming with you. What did he say? Did she get detention? Please say she did!"

"No, she didn't. He was more shocked that we didn't know about it, don't think he could find it in him to get annoyed with her shouting about lemon drops. This whole day has been a bit too much I think," Fred yawned.

George got up and walked to the door, "Well, Mr Weasley, I shall leave you to your rest. If I see the wife, I'll tell her you've gone to bed." He winked at his brother and left.

It wasn't until later that night, when the common room was completely empty and all of the other Gryffindors had gone to bed, that Hermione quietly got out of her bed and wrapped herself in her robe. She silently crept over to the door and down the stairs and, without anyone catching her, eventually reached the first seventh year boys dorm. She opened the door soundlessly and walked up between two of the beds. She paused as she could just make out the forms of the twins in their beds.  _'Which one is Fred?!'_ She could tell them apart when they were awake, that was simple enough for her. But when sleeping, apparently it was harder, especially when all you can see are their identical mops of hair poking out from under their duvets. Hermione trusted her instincts and touched one of them on the shoulder through his blankets.

"Not now George," came a husky sleep laced grumble, "Percy's about to tap dance-" he opened his eyes, "oh…hey Hermione," he smiled.

"Hi Fred," she whispered. "Do you mind?" she asked, gesturing to his duvet.

"No, no! Not at all," he rushed, maybe a little too loudly as Lee rolled over in his sleep, gently snoring. "Get in here."

Hermione shrugged off her robe and crawled in beside him. As she cuddled into his side they both let out a sigh of relief as the tension in their heads evaporated once more. Fred placed a small kiss on her forehead and they quickly fell asleep.

* * *

This time they weren't woken up by the sound of Mrs Weasley's screams or Ginny's groans of disgust at their potential  _bedroom activities_ , but a cold stream of water that came from George's wand. "Get up, get up, get up, Mr Lazy Bones! And Mrs Lazy Bones," he bowed at Hermione. "You'll need to get back to your room before the others get up, unless you want to explain where you've been all evening,  _like the hussy you are_ ," he winked.

Hermione paled at the thought of Lavender's love of gossip and scrambled out of bed and ran through the door. Fred turned to George and glared at him, wiping some of the water from his face. "What time is it?"

"5am," George grinned cheekily.


	7. Lavender's Suspicions

Hermione woke up two hours later back in her own bed. The curtains around her bed weren't drawn so the light from the window shone into her eye, waking her up quickly and unhappily. She sat up in her bed to see most of the girls rushing around to get ready.  _Most_  of the girls. Staring at her from the bed opposite her was Lavender Brown.

"Where were you last night?"

Hermione groaned internally, not even George's indecently early wakeup call could save her from this teenaged-Rita-Skeeter-like girl. "I was in bed."

"Who's bed?" Lavender questioned.

"My bed," Hermione answered stubbornly before getting out of bed and getting changed into her uniform. She could almost feel Lavender's curious gaze from across the room and could only hope that she didn't continue badgering her throughout the day.

* * *

Hermione was sat between Ron and Harry at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, as usual. Fred, George and Lee were the next ones down to the Great Hall and they sat opposite them, the boys quickly fell into a conversation about Quidditch practise while Hermione read from her Transfiguration textbook as she buttered her toast. She was about to bit into it as she heard the sickly sweet tones of Lavender Brown from the other side of Ron.

"So where were you last night, Hermione?"

The boys' attention snapped between the two girls as they quickly lost interest in their Quidditch talk. Fred, George and Lee paled slightly but remained quiet, they were the only other ones who knew where Hermione had been and there was nothing in their explanation that wouldn't be damaging to Hermione's character. With the way that rumours flew around the school about her relationship with Krum last year during the tournament, they knew how it would look for her to be sneaking in and out of the seventh year boy's dorm late at night/early in the morning.

"I told you, I was in bed," Hermione answered, still staring at her triangle of toast.

"Well," Lavender started, "I happen to know that you were not in our room until after 5 o'clock this morning. So where were you?"

"W-what?!" Hermione stuttered, "How do you know the exact time that I-?"

"An alarm charm," Lavender said, waving Hermione's agitation away with a hand, "spill. Where were you?"

"I-I was in the library," she replied quietly.

Lavender smiled smugly, "I was in the library until near curfew and I didn't see you. So, where were you? It's not like you were doing anything exciting.  _Merlin knows_  you couldn't get a boyfriend." This earned a small snort of laughter from Ron, who received a sharp glare from the rest of the boys.

"I have to go," Hermione said, standing up and smoothing out her skirt before looking at Harry, "I'll see you in Transfiguration." She walked briskly out of the hall, keeping her head down and her book clutched to her chest tightly.

Lavender peeled away from the group, satisfied with embarrassing Hermione she skipped away to sit with Parvarti. The group of boys were left in silence. Harry, George and Lee looked worriedly at Fred, who was clutching his fork so hard that his knuckles were white as he stared at Ron, who was oblivious to his glare. After a few moments, George tried to break the quiet, "So when does Qui-"

He was interrupted by a loud squawk from Ron, "What was that for?!" he asked, wiping the pumpkin juice from his face while clutching his forehead in pain. It seemed that Fred's idea to throw the drink over him hadn't gone quite to plan as his goblet followed, crashing into Ron's head. Not that Fred was upset by this.

Fred just stared at him, throwing a bread roll at his brother before getting up and stalking out of the hall. Ron looked at the others, "Really, what was that for?"

George and Lee shook their heads and left, rushing to find a very angry Fred.

Harry sighed, "Come on, you git, we've got Transfiguration."


	8. Hermione Weasley

After classes that day, Harry and Ron were playing Wizard's Chess in the common room. Harry scanned the room for his other best friend and found Hermione sitting on the sofa next to Fred as he, George and Lee were speaking in hushed tones.

 _'Probably planning their next prank,'_ thought Harry, _'I wonder how Hermione will react when she finds ou-'_

Harry's thoughts were interrupted as he noticed Fred turning away from the other two boys and catching Hermione's attention. She looked up from the rather large tome on her lap and smiled at Fred. After a moment of quiet whispers, he pointed to something in his notebook - the notebook that was kept by one of the pranksters at all times, they never let it out of their reach as it held all of their ideas, designs, notes and plans for their business – and Hermione shook her head before taking a pencil from behind her ear and scribbling in the margin of the book. To Harry's surprise, not even one of the pranking trio looked annoyed, Harry had seen George come close to hexing Ron when he even touched the book, so why was Hermione allowed to actually  _write_  in it?

The other two boys looked away as Fred whispered something into Hermione's ear that caused her to flush crimson and slap his arm playfully. Fred went back to his conversation as Hermione's attention drifted back to her book. Although they seemed to be polar opposites, Harry couldn't help but notice that the two seemed to  _fit_. They looked comfortable with each other and it appeared that they spent as much time as possible together.

He quickly glanced at Ron who was concentrating on the chessboard. Harry had thought that maybe Ron and Hermione were working towards something. Mrs Weasley seemed to think so, so did Mr Weasley. But when he really thought about it, the thought of his best friends getting together made him feel uncomfortable. Not that he was jealous, it wasn't that at all. It was the feeling that if they did, it would end one day, taking with it all possibility of  _keeping_  his two best friends. Ron mocked her cleverness, her eager attitude towards her studies, he argued with her constantly and to his shame, Harry realised that he almost always sided with Ron.

Fred teased, he didn't mock. There was friendliness behind his jokes, not malice. His words never left her crying in a bathroom waiting to be found by a mountain troll, or again crying in her dress after the Yule Ball. Fred looked at Hermione with a tenderness that Harry couldn't recall ever seeing before, maybe he had seen it between Mr and Mrs Weasley.  _'But how serious are they? What if he hurts her?'_

Harry was stirred from his thoughts by a grunt from Ron, "Disgusting, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"Those two," he said, glaring over at his brother and best friend, "all over each other."

Harry turned to look at the couple again, they weren't all over each other, they were sat next to each other, cuddled innocently together. Fred's arm around her shoulders as her head rested on his. "They aren't that bad, Ron."

"Whatever, I've worked it out anyway."

"Worked what out?"

"This whole thing."

"Still not following, mate."

"It's all a plan to make me jealous!" Ron said as if stating the obvious.

Harry had to stifle a laugh at his friend's conclusion, "Oh? How's that?"

"Well, they obviously would never get together would they? She must have roped him into some scheme to get me to notice her, poor girl. I mean, he's all popular and she's all…well…you know…"

"No, I don't know," Harry said rather coldly, upset that Ron would consider Hermione _unworthy_.

"She's not exactly the best candidate, is she?"

"Candidate?" Harry whispered furiously, "She is not some game show contestant," he didn't pause at Ron's puzzled expression, "and if she was then she's bloody won the game! She's got a boyfriend, look at them, it's borderline cavity-inducing to watch them together! And Krum didn't seem to think that she wasn't the best 'candidate', if I recall correctly, didn't someone mention how good she looked that night before tearing into her about her choice of date?"

Ron had the decency to look ashamed of his attitude for a few seconds before he remembered that his best friend was disagreeing with him. "You're on her side?!" he cried.

"There are no sides, it's not an argument. She doesn't even know what we're talking about and she won't find out unless you don't sit down and stop being a twat about it," Harry sighed, tired at his friend's attitude and not willing to put up with another fight over a perceived injustice. "I'm not fighting with you."

Ron calmed down after that and they returned to the game. Harry glanced over a few times before deciding to head up to bed. He took one last look at the couple and saw that more people had arrived near the group on the sofas, in order to make room, Fred had gathered Hermione up onto his lap and was holding her close.

_'They don't seem to be acting much…'_

* * *

Later that night, after Ron and the other boys in the dormitory had fallen asleep, Harry decided that a trip to the kitchens was necessary. With everyone staring and glaring at him after the events before the summer, Harry found it difficult to stay in the Great Hall for a full meal. And besides, Dobby was down there and he had recently discovered that Dobby's maple pecan plaits were amazing.

Harry slinked out of his bed and made his way over to his trunk. Rummaging around in there as quietly as possible, Harry eventually found his cloak and map at the bottom of the chest. He slipped on the invisibility cloak and put his wand to the map.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he declared with a smile.

The ink appeared and bloomed across the page, the lines of Hogwarts becoming clearer. He quickly found himself in the fifth year boys dormitory. Looking at the space around his footprints he could see the others, Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean. He started to make his way towards the door when a name that was out of place caught his attention. Looking at the first seventh year boys dorm (he didn't blame the others from wanting to move away from the twins' experiments, one step into their bedroom at the Burrow almost rendered him unconscious last time he tried), he saw the names in their beds. Lee Jordan, George Weasley, Fred Weasley and…

_'Hermione Weasley?'_


	9. BOOM! Soul bonded!

Without another thought, Harry ripped the cloak off and stuffed it back into his trunk. He walked out of the room and headed straight for the seventh year boys dormitory, completely forgetting his plans to visit the kitchens. When he reached the door and found it locked, he briefly considered blasting the door open but when he thought about what he might see – Fred and Hermione… _in bed_  – he decided to knock first.

He knocked on the door and heard a sleepy voice ask, "Who is it?"

"It's Harry," he whispered through the door, "now let me in, it's important."

He heard sounds of shuffling and soon the lock of the door clicked open, he hurried inside and shut it once more, as well as casting a silencing on the room. When he turned around, he was bombarded with questions from the three boys.

"What's going on?"

"Has something happened?"

"What's wrong?"

"Shush, shush, all of you shush," he said, holding up a hand to them, "Where's Hermione?"

Fred, George and Lee looked at each other for a moment before George answered, "In the girls dorm, I'd guess."

"Yeah," Lee continued, "Why would she be in here?"

"I don't know, why _would_  she be in here?" said Harry looking pointedly at Fred and holding up the Marauder's map.

With three groans of defeat, the boys deflated, George and Lee sat down on their beds and Fred bent over to see underneath his, "Best come out now, love, he knows."

Harry watched as the figure of his best friend emerged from under Fred's bed, her curly hair as wild as ever. She straightened up, dusting off her pyjamas before looking at Harry.

"It's not what you think."

"Well I  _think_ that you were in bed with Fred."

She and Fred exchanged a look of mild relief, "So maybe it is what you think, " said Fred.

"You've been dating for how long?" he glared at them.

"Don't look at me like that, Harry James Potter! You are not my father, you cannot look at me and  _disapprove,_ it's none of your concern whether we share a bed or not," Hermione said agitatedly, "and this situation is a lot more complicated than that-"

"Oh Merlin," Harry gasped, "are you pregnant?"

"Why does everyone ask that?!" she cried.

Fred sat back on the bed, "Only Mum asked before."

"Well two is still too many people!"

"But-"

Harry interrupted, "Are you married?"

His question caused Hermione and the twins to fall completely silent, Lee however began to laugh, when he noticed that the others hadn't joined in, his look of concern matched Harry's as he leapt up from the bed and turned to Fred and Hermione.

"Are you?" he asked.

"Why would you ask that?" Hermione questioned, looking worriedly at Harry.

"The map," he said, waving the map once more.

"Ergh!" she groaned, "The map that never bloody lies!" she pulled the map from Harry's hand and moved over to the bed where she and Fred found her name – her  _new_  name.

"What do you mean?" asked Lee.

"Well," Harry answered, "according to the map, you're looking at Fred and Hermione Weasley," he pointed at the couple.

"But it's just a joke map," Lee said, "we used it to plan pranks and sneak around the castle."

"And that's what it's for. But like Hermione said, it never lies, unlike some people," he finished with a pointed glare at Fred and Hermione who looked up at his remark.

"Excuse me!" Hermione said agitatedly, "We didn't lie…"

"…We just failed to tell the whole truth," Fred continued.

"How could you not tell anyone! You got married! That's kind of a big deal!" Harry shouted.

"Calm down, Harry," George said, "It's not like they eloped and didn't tell us. It happened by accident and-"

"How do you get married by accident?" Lee interrupted.

"You find your soul-mate," Fred said simply.

Harry scoffed, "That's laying it on a bit thick, mate."

"No," Hermione interjected, "That's what happened."

Lee's mouth gaped open, "You don't mean…?"

"Yup," Fred confirmed.

George continued, "Soul bond."

"Blimey!" Lee sighed, falling back onto his bed.

"Erm, excuse me? Could someone explain what's going on?" Harry said tensely.

Hermione sighed and fell back onto the bed, "Soul mates are real, not in the muggle movie sense where couples are on again and off again so many times that they decide that they're destined to be together, or after a series of chance encounters they realise that they're meant for each other-"

"Like ' _When Harry Met Sally_ '?"

"Really, Harry? Rom-coms? Anyway, yes, kind of like ' _When Harry Met Sally_ '. But really, soul mates are two parts of a whole, it's not that common to find them."

"That's how it happened by accident. We just kissed and then BOOM! Soul bonded."

"'Just kissed'" George scoffed, "More like walked up and snogged her face off and shone brighter than the sun for a few seconds."

"Has anyone else seen this?" Hermione asked, holding up the map at Harry.

"No, why?"

"Well if someone sees 'Hermione Weasley' running around then it might make it a bit obvious that something's going on and not everyone will come and talk to us first."

"What can we do though? Change your name?" Harry asked.

"I could…I mean…do you want me to?" Hermione looked at Fred.

"I don't know, I quite like you being Mrs Weasley," Fred said with a small smile.

"Really?" asked George.

"Yeah," he answered, "We're getting closer as a couple anyway, it would only be a matter of time until I asked anyway."

"Really?!" Hermione squeaked.

"Erm," he started nervously, "it isn't as if we really have a choice, I mean, we're not going to find anyone that makes us happier. We were made for each other. It's kind of taken the pressure off a bit."

"As well as putting some more very literal pressure on," she added, pinching the bridge of her nose in pain.

"Headache?" George asked, receiving a nod in response he added, "But you're together…?"

"And I'm thinking too hard," she said before grasping Fred's hand and loudly sighing in relief.

"Ok, so what do we do?"

"We could ask Remus and Sirius to meet us next time we go into Hogsmeade, see if they could change the map so that it doesn't use my…married…name."

George and Lee perked up from their places on their beds before Fred asked, "You're going to show  _Professor_  Lupin the map?!"

Hermione exchanged a smile with Harry before he answered for her, "Well, he and Sirius would know the most about it…they did make it after all."

The three boys stayed silent for a moment before George questioned, "You mean we've been staying with two of the Marauders?"

"And no one mentioned this?"

"We've had breakfast, lunch and dinner-"

"-with our idols,"

"and no one told us?" they finished.

"Yep," Hermione confirmed.

"You're my wife! How could you keep this secret from me?!" Fred cried dramatically, "Our relationship is based on lies and deceit!"

"So who's who?" asked Lee.

"Remus is Moony, Sirius is Padfoot…"

"My dad was Prongs," Harry added.

"And Wormtail?"

"Pettigrew." Harry said darkly.

"Who is Pettigrew?" Lee questioned hesitantly after hearing Harry's tone.

Hermione waved him off, "Not a person we need to talk about now. He's...not exactly nice."

"So we can owl them tomorrow and arrange to meet them next time?"

"Sure, we can ask if they've found out anything else about the bond too."

"Right," said George, clapping his hands together as he shooed Harry towards the door, "Now that that's all sorted, get out, Lee needs his beauty sleep."

"What about Hermione?! She can't stay in here!" Harry yelped as George attempted to shut the door on him.

Hermione shot him a look that silenced his protests before climbing back into Fred's bed.

Harry walked back to his dormitory, still in shock, and put the map back into his trunk.

 _'So she's definitely not trying to make Ron jealous,'_  he thought with a smirk.


	10. What Pains?

Fred woke up the next morning as George and Lee moved around the room noisily as they got ready for the day. He pulled the covers back and swung his legs out of the bed, when he stood up, he shot back down with a yelp as a sharp pain ran through his abdomen.

"Fred! What's wrong?!" George asked as he ran to his brother's bed.

Fred moaned in pain and clutched his stomach.

"Is it...you know? Is it the bond?" George asked.

"I don't know, it's always been headaches with the bond. And that's just a slight thing that gets bigger, this is just a painful pain," Fred answered.

"A ' _painful pain_ '?" Lee asked with a small smirk.

Fred flopped back onto the bed and shot Lee a glare, "Shut it, you try being descriptive when your insides are committing suicide."

George's brows furrowed in thought before he turned to Lee, "Could you go downstairs and check if Hermione's down yet? See if it's a bond pain or if he just needs to go see Pomphrey."

Lee nodded as he finished tying his tie and made his way out of the room.

Fred looked up at his twin, "Lupin said it would get worse. It isn't supposed to be this sudden though, why would it get so bad this fast?"

The twins sat in silence for a while as they waited for Lee to return. When he walked through the door, George shot out of his seat and Fred attempted to do the same but clutched his stomach and fell back.

"Is she ok? Is it a bond pain?"

Lee shrugged, "Harry said that she went to the library to check out a book before breakfast."

"No pain…?"

"No, dunno what to tell you, mate. Maybe once you have something to eat, you'll feel better," Lee said as he picked up his backpack and George did the same. "Get dressed and we'll meet you down there."

* * *

Fred dropped into the seat beside George and laid his head on the table.

"What's wrong with Fred?" Harry asked, gesturing at the redhead who was groaning pathetically.

"Dunno," George answered before lowering his voice, "Is Hermione ok?"

"Yeah, I think so. Why?" Harry asked, confused.

"Well, they hurt when they're apart," he said in a whisper as he pushed some toast towards Fred, "but we don't know if this is a bond thing or if he's just sick."

"She seemed fine," Harry said, "she went to the owlery to send a letter to her parents. She'll be down soon, I think."

At that moment, Hermione walked in and to the confusion of the boys, did not look to be in pain, in fact, she seemed quite chipper. She took her seat next to Fred and, noticing that he seemed in pain, became immediately worried. She pressed her leg against his, the subtle touch that they had agreed on in public - both were fine with their friends knowing about their relationship but after Hermione's experience with crazed Krum groupies and the girls that always chased after the twins, they had decided to keep it quiet, at least for a while - in hopes that it would help ease his discomfort. It didn't help, if Fred's feeble moan was anything to go by.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly.

"I'm dying," he said plainly.

She rolled her eyes, "You're not dying, now tell me what the matter is."

"My stomach is killing me, it's like there are gnomes in there just chewing on my organs. Can...can you feel anything?" he asked with a wince.

Hermione flushed slightly and fidgeted in her seat, "Well, yes, but I don't see how-"

"George!" Fred cried, then whispered, "'Mione feels it! It's a bond thing!"

George whispered back, "Didn't Remus say that the pain would get worse as time went on-?"

"But it hasn't been long enough for that to-"

"I don't think that's what it is," Hermione interjected.

"It has to be, I mean, this hurts way more than before and we're together and it hasn't gone, so we need to talk to Rem-"

"This isn't a bond pain."

"What?" Fred asked, looking at her in complete confusion, "What else can it be?"

"Erm..." Hermione struggled for words and began fidgeting again.

"Mione?"

"Well, at least for me, it's...erm," she played with her hands uncomfortably.

"Come on Granger," George said, "Spit it out."

"I have cramps."

"What?" Fred asked, baffled.

"I've got cramps," she stated with a blush.

"Are you saying that...?" Fred trailed off in astonishment.

"Yes, I think so."

"That I've got...?"

"That's all I can come up with. It could have spread across the bond. Or sympathy pains, maybe."

George burst out laughing, spilling his pumpkin juice over his lap as he dropped his goblet.

"What's going on?" Lee asked, not having followed the twins' and Hermione's train of thought.

"Fred's got-" George started, his voice high pitched in his amusement.

"Don't even finish that sentence!" Fred growled, grabbing a piece of toast and throwing it at George's head.

"Period pains!" George cried as he collapsed onto the table in a fit of giggles.


	11. Double Potions

The day dragged on slowly, Fred was waiting outside his last class of the day, he was dreading it –  _double_   _Potions_. He wasn't looking forward to standing over a cauldron for an entire lesson, with Snape sneering at him for two hours. George clapped him on the shoulder and nodded to the door which the rest of his class were filing through. They reached their desk and got out their books. George kept quiet, knowing that Fred was still moping over his  _feminine problems_  and wouldn't be up for talking.

Snape appeared at the door and headed to his desk, robes billowing as he barked out orders to turn to page 94 and prepare their ingredients. "This potion will take approximately an hour and a half to brew, once you have finished, leave a vial with your name on my desk. Now get to work."

The class went to work in silence, Snape sat at his desk and marked some essays, looking up occasionally to observe the students. He had heard at lunch from Flitwick that the Weasley twins were subdued, something that had most of the staff worried, and couldn't help but notice that something was off. He got up and stalked between the tables, checking the brewing potions and soon reached the duo, who hadn't noticed him.

"Fred," George whispered, "Are you ok, mate?"

"No," his twin replied, "I don't know how girls do it, this is terrible."

Snape was confused, assuming that one of their experiments had gone wrong, yet again, he decided to make his presence known. "Mr Weasley, what appears to be the problem?"

Fred looked around, startled, and blushed slightly, "Erm…nothing sir. Everything's fine!"

Fred's potion began to boil over, as determined as Snape was to detest the two pranksters, he recognised that they were two of his best students, if only their use of potions was less irritating and Marauder-like. Snape arched an eyebrow and looked pointedly behind Fred, who turned around and yelped as the orange foam seeped over the sides of the cauldron and droplets landed on the desk, fizzling as it burned. With a wave of his wand, Snape vanished the potion and sneered at the red-headed teenager.

"Detention, Mr Weasley, for not paying attention and damaging school property," he snarled.

The potions master was shocked – he didn't show it, of course – to see the panic on the student's face. The twins were never afraid to get detention, it often seemed as though they welcomed it. Something was definitely up. He decided to leave it until later, when it was only one of them and they wouldn't do that infernal speech-swapping thing that they were prone to do.

"Is that a problem?"

"No, no," Fred said in a rush, "No, not at all, sir."

"Be here at 5 o'clock."

Snape walked away and left the twins to their potions, or rather, George's potion and Fred's textbook. "What am I going to do?" hissed Fred.

George sighed, stirring his potion counter-clockwise, "Just relax, you still have tonight. She'll be there when you get back and-"

"But what if he keeps me here for ages? I've already got a headache-"

"Don't girls sometimes get them when they're…?" he trailed off.

"I don't know, I've never had a period before," Fred grumbled. "We used to be able to make it to the evening but this week it's started before classes have even finished."

"Harry said that he sent a letter to Sirius, so we'll be able to meet him and Remus, they did say that it would get worse."

"Yes,  _eventually_ , not after a couple of weeks! What am I going to do?!"

"Remus said you have to…complete the bond…" George said with a sympathetic wince.

"Oh well that's romantic, 'Hey Hermione, I've got a headache, my bed or yours?'" Fred whispered frantically.

George rolled his eyes, "I'm not saying that, you know she gets the pains too. You need to talk about it. You have to eventually…" he shrugged.


	12. How Much More Is There?

It reached 6 o'clock and Snape looked up from the papers he was grading only to find Fred slumped over his desk.

"Mr Weasley!" Snape barked at him, enraged by the student's audacity to  _fall asleep_  during his detention. He tried again when the teen didn't stir.

The potions master moved from his desk towards the boy, who was breathing gently as his face was pressed into the books he was copying notes from. "Mr Weasley!" Even from this short distance, he didn't hear him, or at least he didn't move. Snape shook his shoulders, only hearing a sharp gasp and pained moan in response. Looking down, he saw that Fred's eyes were shut tightly as if to block out any light that could possibly seep into the dark dungeon.

He heard the door creak and whipped his head around to see a giant ball of orange fluff hurtling towards himself and Fred.

"What are you…?" Snape watched in confusion as what was now, as it slowed down, clearly a cat leapt onto the stool beside the student and hopped onto the desk, leaving dusty and inky paw prints all over the parchment and textbooks. The cat looked at him urgently and meowed.

"What? Stop touching him!" he said sharply, shooing the cat's paws from Fred's face as it seemed to try swatting him into consciousness. "Move, cat!"

Snape brandished his wand and the cat watched as he conjured a stretcher and levitated Fred's unconscious form onto it. The cat nodded in approval and jumped down from the desk, trotting towards the door before turning back to wait for them.

Deciding to ignore the strange creature for the moment, he turned his attention to getting Fred to the hospital wing and levitated the student out of his classroom and through the corridors. The cat was still following them when they arrived at the doors of the hospital wing two floors up. The door creaked open and he glided in smoothly, Fred on the stretcher floating behind him.

"Madame Pomphrey!" he called.

The aging nurse appeared from behind a curtain and sighed as she saw Fred. "Another one?"

"I am not sure exactly what happened, I tried to wake him but couldn't," he explained.

The cat scurried across the room and around the curtain that Madame Pomphrey had appeared from and Snape immediately heard shuffling sounds as someone else drew back the curtain.

"Fred!" his twin yelped and rushed over to the stretcher, "Professor! Will he not wake up either?!"

"Mr Weasley, what do you mean 'either'?" Snape sneered slightly.

"Hermione won't wake up either, I wasn't sure if-" George cut himself off quickly as he saw Snape's eyebrow quirk curiously.

Pomphrey led the way to the bed across from Hermione and Snape noticed that George looked between the two unconscious teens almost in a panic. "Severus, could you lie Mr Weasley down over in this-"

"No!" George interrupted, apparently having come to a decision.

Pomphrey looked confused, "Mr Weasley, we just need to-" she tried.

"No. We need to put him with Hermione," he said, not looking at either one of them and moving back over to Hermione.

"M-Mr Weasley," Pomphrey spluttered, "That is hardly appropriate, we will not be-"

"Fine," the boy barked sharply, taking out his wand. "I will." George pointed his wand at his brother and promptly levitated him onto the bed next to Hermione.

"Mr Weasley!" Snape snapped, "You will not disrespect staff members and interfere with the health of other students, no matter-"

"With all due respect, sir, you really have no idea what's going on," George sighed, slumping down in the seat beside the bed and running his hands through his hair agitatedly.

At that moment, the headmaster walked in and looked at the teens with a slight wince, his discomfort at their current situation not extinguishing the twinkle in his eyes that only served to infuriate the Potions professor.

"Poppy, Severus, what has happened today must go no further than these walls. Do you follow?"

The nurse and professor looked both confused and irritated. "No, I do not  _follow_ ," Snape answered in a clipped tone. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Professor Dumbledore," George caught his attention, "They haven't - they normally move. What's-? I don't know what's happening!"

Dumbledore rested his hand gently on George's shoulder in an attempt to calm him somewhat. "You just need to give them time. The pace at which their bond is strengthening is puzzling, although, neither of them really does anything half-heartedly…"

"Their bond?" Pomphrey gasped. "Albus, are you saying that they've bonded in some way?"

"Yes, they have. Only a few know about this, and it is not something that we want to get out. If it did, the results could be disastrous."

"Wait, what do you mean 'disastrous'? I thought that this was a good thing?!" George cried, "They're soul mates! How can that be  _'disastrous'_?"

"Soul mates!" Pomphrey breathed out.

"Yes, Poppy. Soul mates. I'm unsure of the details of their initial bonding…" he trailed off, looking uncertainly at the teens, "but they are soul bonded."

Snape shifted, "Are you sure that you want me here for this?"

George looked confusedly at the professors until Dumbledore answered, "My boy, you can occlude this from your mind. There will be no harm in you knowing of their bond. In fact, it would be helpful to have another member of staff that can assist in this situation."

George was still confused, "Sir, why would-?"

Snape looked at him sharply, "Do you know nothing of soul bonds? About what will happen should their power get into the wrong hands?!"

"Their power? But…they…?" George stammered. "We didn't even know about any of this until after it happened! We were just talking to Sir-Remus," he amended after remembering that Madame Pomphrey was present, "and explaining about the kissing and the gold light and then he was all 'Oh, you're soul bonded!' and then we get to school and you're," he pointed to the headmaster, "all 'Oh by the way, you're married now!' How much more is there?!"

Pomphrey looked at the panicking student in sympathy and guided him back to his chair. "When soul bonded couples…consummate… their bond, their powers…expand."

"Expand?" he questioned.

"Yes, dear. They grow-"

"Or explode," Snape interrupted.

"What?!" George squeaked.

"Severus, that is not helping!" Pomphrey hissed. "Their magic will grow and they will be…more capable."

"But, what does that mean?" he asked the professors.

"They will be a powerful asset in this war," Dumbledore started, trying not to worsen the boy's worries. "They will have incredible control once they are used to their powers and…Lord Voldemort may decide that they are something to be used by him-"

"But they would never-" George interrupted fiercely.

"I know, I know. He may decide that they are to be used, or…disposed of."

"He would kill them?"

"It is a possibility, that he might take  _action_  if he was to find out," Snape answered slowly.

George turned his attention to the hospital bed and looked at his brother, who in his sleep had shifted to curl comfortably around Hermione's similarly slumbering form, with Crookshanks curled up at their feet. "But we're…they're… _so young_ ," he breathed. "They  _just_  got accidentally married! They can't have a murdering psychopath after them!"


	13. Shifty Is My Default Setting

Hermione and Fred woke up later that evening, since Dumbledore didn't wish to add too much stress to an already complicated situation, only the burst of magic was explained, much to Hermione's embarrassment and Fred's amusement. This didn't last long, as George's worried glances did not go unnoticed by the couple and it took them a couple of days before they cornered him and dragged the truth out of him.

Over the next couple of weeks, the couple were more willing to spend time together openly. Since most of Gryffindor knew about their relationship, or had some kind of inkling about it, or just didn't care, their behaviour didn't cause any confusion when it started showing up outside of the common room.

* * *

George arrived late to breakfast to find Fred hunched over the notebook as Hermione tried to look around him to see what he was hiding. "What's going on here then?" he asked as he grabbed a piece of toast from Lee's plate and settled onto the bench beside him.

"Fred's keeping secrets and being shifty," Hermione answered quickly.

Fred grinned playfully, "Shifty is my default setting, love. And who says I'm keeping secrets?"

"Well, you're practically laying on your notebook which means you have a plan, and when I asked you how you were this morning, you answered in a pitch that only dogs can hear…you're up to something…" she narrowed her eyes at him with a small smile.

Harry and Ron appeared from the other side of Lee and hurried Hermione along to Charms, both frantically chattering about a quiz that they had both forgotten, leaving the twins and Lee to finish their breakfast quickly.

"So…what _is_  going on?" Lee asked.

"It's her birthday!" Fred cried in hushed panic.

"Not for…" George trailed off as he tried to remember.

""It's on the 19th! That's next week!"

"So what are you panicking for? You've got plenty of time," Lee assured him with a pat on the shoulder.

"That's what this is!" he cried, waving the notebook at them. "It's her first birthday since we've been  _together_  and we're  _married_ , I've been trying to come up with something special but every time I think of something it's too girly – and I know that she's a girl but she's not like other girls, but sometimes she gets offended when you don't count her as one of the girls – but then if she has to sit and listen to someone talk about some article about eye shadow trends they've read in Witch Weekly, then she goes  _mental_." He sighed in frustration, "What do you get for your girlfriend, who's your wife…but people just think is your friend who's a girl, but doesn't like girly things, except for on the few occasions when she does?"

George and Lee were silent for a moment, before blinking at him slowly.

"Wow," George started.

"That was a lot of words..." Lee carried on.

"Argh! You're not helping! Never mind," Fred groaned, picking his bag up off the floor and slinging it over his shoulder, "we've got to get to Transfiguration first."

* * *

_Are you okay? – R_

Hermione looked at the scrap of parchment that had been pushed across the textbook in the middle of the desk. She scribbled out a quick reply and turned her attention back to Professor Flitwick at his podium at the front of the class.

_Yes, I am. Now, stop passing notes and pay attention. - H_

She pushed the note back to Ron and carried on taking notes as Professor Flitwick harped on about the importance of proper focus when performing silencing spells. The parchment returned quickly, Rons messy handwriting irking her as it invaded her space yet again.  _Honestly_ , she thought,  _as if he won't be nagging to borrow my notes when he has to do his homework!_

_Fred seemed a bit off with you at breakfast. Did you have a fight? – R_

Hermione turned to her friend with a glare. She glanced at the professor from the corner of her eye and saw that he was now observing the students on the other side of the room as they practiced silencing the frogs that they had been given. "No, we haven't had a fight, Ronald," she started coldly, his attitude towards Fred had gotten worse recently and she was tired of having to deal with – what was for Ron – subtle jabs at their relationship. "If you don't mind, could you please keep your neb out?"

"What? Keep my… _my what_?" Ron looked at her, his face twisted up in confusion.

"It means nose, Ron," Harry supplied from Hermione's other side. "And you probably should keep it out," he carried on as he stared into the eyes of his frog with a grimace.

"Why are you taking their side?!" Ron yelped, earning a few curious glances from the Ravenclaw's in the room, as well as a few Gryffindor's.

Harry sighed as Hermione rolled her eyes at their red-headed friend's comment, "There are  _no sides_ , but it's none of your business. It's not mine either, just leave them to it."

Professor Flitwick soon made his way over to them and smiled happily when their frogs were silenced, and looking a little bit angry at their new muteness.


	14. What's In Mr Weasley's Shed?

That night, Fred was lying in bed going over his notes once more. He had to use a new notebook, George and Lee were getting annoyed that their prank ideas were now littered with bits of Hermione-trivia, so he had transferred his ideas into the book which he kept hidden under his mattress. George and Lee had already gone to bed, but he was still awake to wait for Hermione, who was finishing up her homework in her own dorm (to keep up appearances with the other girls, who didn't know about her staying in Fred's bed every night) after spending most of the time after classes in the common room with him.

He knew that he needed something special. Something magical, yet a little bit muggle at the same time. Maybe he could make it into some kind of puzzle, too. ' _She likes to work things out_ …' He could picture a toy in his mind, one that he could probably use,  _'What's that thing?! That thing that Dad has in the shed, it's got the colours and you twist it and-'_

"A Rubik's cube," came a soft voice from across the room as Hermione made her way towards his bed, her nose still stuck in her textbook.

"Argh!" Fred yelped, slamming the book shut and sliding it under the covers out of her sight. "A what what?"

"A Rubik's cube, the cube with the coloured stickers, you twist them around and match the faces up…Why were you talking about that?" she asked as she sat on the bed beside him in her pyjamas, a tank top paired with a pair of plaid patterned shorts that were probably too cold for a draughty castle in the Scottish Highlands.

George's sleepy voice came from the bed beside theirs, "He didn't say anything, can you two pipe down, I'm trying to sleep and you're talking about rubytubes and-"

"Rubik's cubes, George. And yes he was, he was saying that your dad has one in the shed and-"

"I didn't say anything," Fred stated with wide eyes.

"Thank you," George said and he turned over, attempting to get back to sleep.

Hermione looked at him before asking in a quieter voice, "What do you mean?"

" _I mean_ , I didn't say anything!" Fred clarified, slightly alarmed.

"You must have-"

"Hermione," he interrupted, grabbing her shoulders and turning her body towards him. "What am I thinking right now?"

"Oh, you think we're psychic? Really Fred," she raised a sceptical eyebrow, "that's just ridiculous."

"Come on, just humour me. When I'm wrong, you can laugh at me all you want, call me a daft pillock, whatever. Just  _concentrate_."

She scoffed, but complied. "Fred, I really-" she stopped at her husband's stern look. "Ugh! Fine. I don't know what you want me to do!"

He waved an impatient hand at her, "Just say whatever comes into your head."

"Ok, right. Rubik's cubes, your dad's shed, jumpers-"

"Jumpers!"

"Well you told me to say whatever came into my head!" she huffed, looking put out that he was mocking her.

"I'm not making fun of you, love. George! Wake up! Bond emergency!" he hollered across to his twin.

"What?" George groaned, whipping the curtain back from around his bed. "I was trying to get some sleep, I have my detention with McGonagall tomorrow and I need to look my best, might be able to charm my way out of it."

Hermione looked both confused and amazed, "How have you already got detention? We've been back less than two weeks!"

"I didn't finish my essay for today's lesson," he shrugged.

"But Fred did his and-"

"Ah," he grinned cheekily, "but I don't get the rewards for being a good boy that Freddie does, do I?" he teased, chuckling when she blushed.

"Shut up, both of you," Fred snapped slightly, looking as stressed as a Weasley twin could.

"Fred, calm down," Hermione soothed.

"What's this emergency then?" George yawned.

"We're psychic."

His statement was met by the other two talking at the same time, "Oh Fred, we aren't psychic, it's just-"

"Why do you think you're psychic?"

"Where do we hide out jumpers?" Fred asked his brother.

"What are you talking about? We love our jumpers," George said too quickly, shooting a look at Hermione from the corner of his eye before looking sharply at his twin.

"What are you-? You hide your jumpers in the shed?!" Hermione gasped as she worked it out.

"You told her?!" George shouted.

"I didn't tell her anything," Fred said. "I was thinking about it and then she knew. Or at least she knew there was a connection."

"Your mum spends ages on those jumpers!" Hermione scolded them. "She makes 9 of them!"

"10, you're definitely getting one this year," George supplied.

"That's even worse!"

"Can you two focus, please?" Fred ordered. "We're a little bit psychic. How do we deal with this?"

Lee's voice came from behind the closed curtains around his bed, "Why don't you deal with this tomorrow since I doubt that McGonagall is going to be able to solve your problems at this time of night!"

"Lee's right-"

"Thank you! Go to sleep!"

George got back into his bed and drew the curtains around him. Fred moved over, making room for Hermione in his bed as she slipped under the covers beside him. "Bloody hell, your feet are cold!" Fred whispered as her feet came into contact with his legs.

"What do you expect? It's freezing in these shorts!" she hissed back.

"Why are you wearing them then?" he asked, a little amused.

"You're too hot," she mumbled.

"Oh stop," he teased. "You're making me blush."

She rolled her eyes at his antics and nestled into his side, " _What I meant_  was that it gets too hot in here when I wear full length bottoms."

He grinned cheekily at her, "So I'm too hot in bed for you?"

"Oh for the love of Merlin, go to sleep," Hermione whispered, blushing at his words with a half-hearted glare.


	15. Y-you said...

Hermione was sitting on the sofa in the quiet common room as she tried to write a letter to her parents. She was on her third attempt so far and was having trouble deciding on whether or not to tell them about Fred. Their growing dislike of magic and the wizarding world made her hesitant to reveal too much to them, especially with the threat of them removing her from school, removing her from Fred, which would potentially kill both of them.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_School's going great! I've learned so many new things this term and it's barely even begun! And before you even think about it, I haven't been spending all of my time in the library…_

For some reason, Hermione didn't know how to mention Fred to her parents. She couldn't just drop it in casually and hope that they didn't freak out, ' _I've been sitting in the common room with my husband most evenings, and sharing a bed every night…_ ' that probably wouldn't go down too well.

_I've been hanging out in the common room a lot more, with Harry and Ron, and Ginny, and Fred and George. You remember Fred and George don't you? The twins? Red hair, tall and lean with a Quidditch toned body that you just want to-_

NO!

Hermione crumpled up the parchment and decided to start afresh. With no references to Fred's muscles, ' _I don't even want to_ think  _about what I almost sent my_ mother _!_ '

She eventually scratched out a letter that was suitable for her parents. It didn't mention Fred much; she decided that she would ease them into her relationship with him. Just by mentioning him in her letters, enough to make them aware that she was around him a lot. Maybe they would notice that she was fond of him, they might even come to expect some sort of relationship between them, and they might even accept their  _secret_  son-in-law…eventually.

She was making her way to the owlery when she felt a familiar tingling in her chest. She walked back down the corridor until she reached the point where the tingling felt the strongest. Soon, she came to a stop beside a moving tapestry.

Sure that she would find something, she lifted the tapestry away from the wall and peered around it into the space behind. Hearing footsteps in the corridor to the owlery, she moved into the passageway that she had just found and noticed the glow of a candle on the wall and decided to investigate. Hermione moved quietly through the secret corridor, until she reached the corner and looked around it.

Fred was, once again, bent over that notebook. Only this time, he had his wand out and seemed to be miming spells as he moved his wand swiftly though the air as if practicing.

"Fancy finding you here," Hermione said, looking innocently at him.

Fred jumped out of his seat, moving to hide his work from her view, before addressing her. "Are you trying to make yourself a widow? You nearly frightened the life out of me, cheeky witch," he smiled.

Hermione peered around him, trying to see what he was hiding, "What are you up to Mr Weasley?"

He quickly picked up his notebook and slipped it into his robe pocket before she could read anything and turned back to her, "You'll find out soon enough, Mrs Weasley," he grinned before leaning down to kiss her. He pulled back and looked at her, smiling smugly as he saw her eyes were slightly glazed over, "How did you find me anyway?" he asked as he guided her back to the corridor.

She pulled the letter to her parents out of her robe pocket as they emerged from behind the tapestry, "I was on my way to the owlery when I felt a twinge."

"Is that what that is? We really need to find out more about this bond," he sighed, rubbing his hand over his chest in the spot where he had felt the twinge himself.

She nodded and threaded her fingers through his, leading him down the hallway, "I know, I don't want to end up on the hospital wing again. I tried the library and I asked Madam Pince when I couldn't find any books on bond magic, she said that they had to be removed decades ago when some girls bonded with their boyfriends without telling them."

Fred laughed, "Are you sure that isn't what happened with us?"

Hermione snorted inelegantly, "Yes, Fred. I set up a bonding ritual and waited for you to kiss me out of nowhere so that we would be bonded for life and I'd get to spend all of eternity wrapped in your insanely warm embrace."

Fred sighed with mock-seriousness, "I suppose I'll have to forgive you for that, I mean, look at me, I'm irresistible," he gestured at his whole body. "If I wasn't me, I'd try and bond me to me, I could be happy with me, I think."

"Wow, be glad that I love you despite your complete lack of modesty," Hermione chuckled. She walked forward a few paces before she realised that Fred had stopped walking. She turned back to him, seeing his wide-eyed expression and complete stillness, she hurried back to him.

"Fred? Is something wrong? Are you ok?" she questioned him and reached up, cupping his face in her hands as she looked into his eyes.

"Y-you said…you've never s-said…I've n-never said it either…I-" he stuttered out.

"Fred, calm down! What are you talking about?"

Instead of trying to speak again, Fred swooped down and captured her lips with his. He walked her back to the wall and picked her up so that they were level, not removing his lips from her once. Her hands had moved from his face to around his neck as she held him close to her. He soon pulled back, not caring about the blush that covered his cheeks and taking great delight in seeing hers.

"Not that I'm complaining," Hermione started as she threaded her fingers through his hair, "but what was that for?"

He grinned at her before pecking her lips again, "You. Said. You. Love. Me," he told her, kissing her between each word.

Hermione stared up at him, "I know, I mean, I thought that…"

He nodded, still unable to wipe the wide smile from his face, "We've never said it before though, it just made me very happy."

"How happy?" she asked with a sly smile.

"Very happy," he answered, his voice seemed lower than it had been just seconds before, "I love you too, Hermione Weasley."


	16. Two New Puzzles

Fred returned to the boys' dormitory before Hermione that night, having put the finishing touches on her birthday present while she had gone to the library to return some books,  _and find a couple of new ones_ , before curfew. He sighed loudly as he flopped back onto his bed, catching George's attention.

"Something wrong Forge?"

"Nope, nothing at all, Gred!" Fred chirped with a wide smile. "Everything's great!"

"Has anything…happened?" George asked, though he was slightly unsure whether he wanted to know. If it was bond related, it would be useful to know, but his feelings towards Hermione were completely different than Fred's and he didn't particularly want to know the  _details_  of what Fred was getting up to with his sister-in-law/little sister-type person, or however he tried to categorise Hermione these days.

Fred got up from his bed and rushed over to George, grasping his shoulders, his wide smile looking slightly manic to his brother. "Hermione loves me!"

"Yeah, I know, we all know, you're soul mates…this isn't news to you…"

"But she said it!"

"Ahh," George said, cottoning on to why Fred was so excited. "So you exchanged "I love you"'s and now…?"

"I get to kiss my wife in public!" Fred exclaimed, leaping onto his bed and striking a triumphant pose.

"Wait, why couldn't you do that before?"

"I-I don't know…there was a reason, but I don't care anymore. She says we can go public-public, more public than we are now, anyway. I finished her present too," he added, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a wooden box and showing it to George. "And I've been avoiding thinking about it so it'll be a complete surprise because she hasn't been able to  _psychic_  it out of me."

"Awww,  _how romantic_ ," George cooed teasingly. "You know, this bond has turned you into a right sap," he smiled before throwing a pillow at his twin.

* * *

The next day, Hermione opened her eyes to see that the dorm was empty, meaning the boys had left for breakfast already. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, she picked up her wand from the bedside table and saw that Fred had left something for her.

She looked at her watch and realised that she only had half an hour before classes started, so she picked up the package and threw on her outer robe and slippers before heading over to the girls dormitories. Thankfully she didn't run into anyone on the way, though they may not have noticed her lack of uniform since she had the robes wrapped tightly around her, and the girls had already gone, but the curtains around her bed were opened slightly so they probably knew that she hadn't been in her bed again.

She had taken to ignoring Lavender and Parvati after the incident at breakfast at the start of term and the snide comments from the two that had followed for days afterwards. She quickly got changed out of her pyjamas and into her uniform and after casting a few cleansing charms and brushing her teeth, she looked as wide awake as ever as she picked up her bag, slipping the package from Fred inside, and headed down to the Great Hall.

Hermione reached the Hall with 5 minutes to spare for breakfast before she had to head off to her lesson. She stopped before the giant doors for a second to catch her breath after running though the busy corridors. She walked through the door and headed to the Gryffindor table, quietly slipping into a seat between Fred and Harry and picking up some toast and putting it on the plate that appeared in front of her.

"Happy Birthday Hermione!" the group chorused, startling her into choking on her orange juice.

"What?"

"Happy Birthday, love," Fred smiled before kissing her soundly and sweetly, prompting an amused eye-roll from George.

"Oh…thank you…"

"You forgot, didn't you?" Ginny accused with a smirk.

"Maybe a little bit," she confirmed. "Is that what this is?" she asked and pulled the box from the bedside table out of her bag.

Fred grinned, "Yep, open it and then when you work it out, come find me."

"Work it out? What do you mean?" Hermione asked, a confused pout on her face as she tore the wrapping paper and revealed the wooden cube inside.

"It's a puzzle box, you have to work out how to open it to get to what's inside," Fred answered, tapping his head. "Gotta keep the 'brightest witch of her age' on her toes somehow, don't forget to come and find me when it's worked out," he said before kissing her cheek as he got out of his seat. "Georgie-boy, Flitwick awaits!"

The twins walked away from the group as the rest of them got up to leave for their lessons. Ginny went and found some other fourth years to head off to their Care of Magical Creatures class while the trio headed over to their Defence class.

Harry handed Hermione a pear and a book-shaped parcel wrapped in moving kneazle-covered wrapping paper, "Happy Birthday Hermione," he smiled.

She juggled the items in her hands and managed to get the present in her bag while still keeping hold of Fred's puzzle box and the pear that was now her breakfast. "Thank you Harry," she said before taking a bite of the pear, "So what  _chapter_  do you think we'll be  _reading_ this lesson?"

Ron barked out a laugh from her other side, "Hah! I never thought I'd see the day when Hermione Granger was miffed about being set reading!"

"Yes, well, as long as we aren't being taught what we need to be, we're in danger. We had a Death Eater as our professor last year and we learned so much _. Admittedly_  his lessons weren't always the nicest, but it's better than this nonsense."

"Well, what can we do?" Harry shrugged as they made their way into the classroom. There were only a few other students in there, Professor Umbridge hadn't yet arrived to start their lesson.

Hermione took out her textbook, her parchment, quill and ink pot and sat beside Fay, ready for the lesson to start. She set Fred's present on her lap and examined it, her grandfather had a puzzle box that she had spent hours working on whenever she had visited as a child, but this wasn't anything like that. Her grandfather's cube had geometric patterns on each face, with strips that would slide out and click into place. This one seemed, amazingly enough,  _magical_. The dark wood was carved to form a landscape, a different one on each face. She traced around the edge of a dragon and watched as the wood that formed the flames from its' mouth, rippled and danced like real fire.

She looked down at the puzzle box in her lap and thought about a new puzzle; _how can we learn if the teacher won't teach us?_


	17. Forest Fires

Hermione retreated to the girls' dorm early that night to write some letters. She sank down onto her bed and took out the various parcels and parchments that she had collected from the owlery after classes had let out since she missed the post coming that morning. She penned a quick missive to Sirius and Remus, thanking them for the chocolate and books they had sent her – Remus' favourite from Honeyduke's and Sirius' notes from his Hogwarts years on becoming an animagus, something that they had been chatting about in their previous letters. She knew that Ron and Harry would want to learn, but the three textbooks and extensive notes that Sirius had sent her would probably put them off the idea for a while, she was still shocked that Sirius could possibly study this hard for something, but thinking of his friendship with Remus and how much mischief he could get into as a dog, she found it easy to believe.

She also sent a letter to her parents, with a thank you for the money that they had sent, along with book vouchers for a muggle shop in the town near their house since they didn't want to send a parcel back with Hedwig as her mother insisted that it would be too much strain for the owl. Again, she struggled with what to say in the letter. Since she had started Hogwarts, their relationship had become a bit strained. With her being away for most of the year and them working a lot to keep the practise afloat, they had spent less and less time together through the years. She told them about her day, leaving out the parts about atrocious, toady teachers and dreaming up a secret defence group, she settled on telling them about her friends. Ron had given her a box of Sugar-free Sugar Quills that he had found when exploring Honeyduke's on an  _unofficial_  visit with Harry when they went shopping for presents. Harry's present was not a book as she had expected, but a photo album with pictures of the trio and the Weasleys that he had got from Colin and Mr Weasley, who always snapped pictures, both wizarding and muggle since they got him a muggle camera for Christmas last year. Ginny had given her a dark red v-necked jumper that she planned on wearing that weekend on an  _official_  Hogsmeade visit. George and Lee had gifted her with what they had called 'The Ultimate Guide to Pranking and Foolish Nonsense-ery' since she had become ' _one of them_ ' with her marriage to Fred and 'had better start using that brilliant brain of hers in some less than studious activities' in George's words. This 'Ultimate Guide' was…ultimate…to say the least. There were books, but they were unlike any that she had seen before, and they were surprisingly interesting. Hermione never thought that there would be an essay about the uses of doxy venom in this context, but now she suspected that this was why she caught the twins teasing a doxy when cleaning Grimmauld Place – she now remembered that George was holding a jar with a thin rubber lid, similar to those that are used when collecting snake venom. She didn't mention her marriage to Fred, though she did mention that she was ' _part of the team'_ which may surprise her parents. Or might not, if her mother's tendency to root out gossip was anything to rely on, then they might have got the hint that there was something going on between herself and Fred.

She finished the letter with a mention of Fred's puzzle box and once she had signed off, she studied the box again. When the other girls came in, she hid the box underneath the pile of presents that was still on her bed and started getting changed into her pyjamas. She wasn't ashamed of Fred's present or the fact that he had given it to her, it was the fact that she had seen Lavender looking at her and the box all day and knew that the girl would ask questions if given the chance. The flurry of activity that came with the girls' bedtime meant that she was ready for bed and able to shut the curtains around her area before the other girls could question her. Now she just had to wait until they were asleep so that she could go over to Fred's dorm.

The common room emptied slowly that night, meaning that by the time Hermione reached the seventh year boys' dormitory to go to bed, she was quite tired. She had waited for hours, reading through Sirius' notes while watching through a slight gap in her curtains for the glow of the candles to go out, signalling that they had fallen asleep – being the only muggleborn, Hermione wasn't used to the magical candles and always snuffed hers out before settling down to sleep, while the others let their candles extinguish themselves automatically, like muggle lamps on timer switches. She yawned into her hand as she clutched her dressing gown around her body, she opened the door and walked inside with her eyes half closed, not seeing what she was doing. A squeak from Lee and the bathroom door slamming shut told her that she had walked in on them getting changed – at the very least – but she was too tired to care. She reached their bed and dropped her schoolbag on the floor by her side, before crawling under the covers and burrowing into Fred's side.

His arm wrapped around her and pulled her even closer as he pressed a kiss to her temple. "So did you get it worked out yet?" he asked.

Hermione opened her eyes and looked up at him, shaking her head. "Nope, I can get the dragon to breathe more fire but then the trees set on fire so I had to blow them out…"

"Maybe the trees are supposed to get set on fire…"

"But then they'll burn and-"

"And what?"

"There's a whole forest scene, it'll spread," she mumbled sleepily.

He arched an eyebrow at her, "And leave what behind?"

"Nothing."

"Hmm. Are you sure about that?"

"Am I su-"

"Go to sleep, love. Think on it tomorrow," he said and tugged the quilt more securely around her shoulders.

And she fell asleep, drowning out the sound of George's snores with thoughts of forest fires and the warmth of Fred's breath on her skin.


	18. Inside The Box

It was a keyhole.

The wooden forest had burnt down, leaving that face of the cube just a smooth surface with a pile of wooden debris at the bottom and the keyhole in the middle. On the face next to it, the dragon had curled up and gone to sleep, now that its job was done.

Hermione held the box in her hands and looked at the sleeping figure beside her. Fred had made this for her. She had seen him hiding his notes from her and thinking loudly about other things whenever he realised that she had heard a little thought about a present for her. The satisfied smile that he wore when he had watched her as she attempted to find her way into the box told her that he was happy with his present making skills.

She turned it over and looked at the other two sides. Together they showed the view of the Black Lake from the boathouse, she remembered the viewpoint from one of their walks that they had started taking to get some time alone away from the curious eyes of gossiping Gryffindor girls. A little way away from the shore there was a rock with a mermaid, a woman with long flowing hair rather than the terrifying screeching creatures that she vaguely remembered glimpsing briefly as she faded in and out of awareness during her time at the bottom of the peaceful looking lake in fourth year.

Her finger trailed along the surface of the water, leaving the wood to ripple and wave as she changed pressure. Her nail tapped the tail of the mermaid who turned to her with a sharp glare before flicking her tail away angrily. Curious, Hermione did it again, and the mermaid shuffled along the rock, away from her finger. Hermione poked her more forcefully this time and the beautiful carving huffed in annoyance before pushing off the rock and slipping back into the water. With one last glare at the young girl that held the box, the creature disappeared.

Hermione touched the raised wood of the rock and paused as she heard and felt it click and move, pushing it slightly, she felt it give a little before it slid out of the way. And there it was…

"Got it then?" Fred asked, causing her to look away from his present and towards him.

"The key? Yes, I've got it," she answered him happily, holding up the key that she had just fished out from its hiding place behind the rock.

He moved to sit up in the bed next to her, shuffling back to rest against the pillows. "Took longer than I expected," he grinned.

She slapped his shoulder lightly, "Excuse me, I worked on this all day yesterday!"

"And they say you're bright," Fred scoffed mockingly. "Ron could have figured it out in two seconds."

She blinked at him with a slight pout, "Maybe I should give it to Ron then-"

"No! No, no. You don't want Ron to see this-"

"What do you mean? What is it? What did you do?"

He pulled her into his arms, "I didn't do anything. Well, I did. But nothing bad. You just might want to keep it from Ron for a while."

"How long is a while?"

"A decade or two," he shrugged with a light smile as she rolled her eyes at him. "At least until we want to tell him or…well…you'll see."

"Does that mean I get to open it?" Hermione whispered excitedly, aware that it was still early and didn't want the other occupants of the room to wake up, even though they could sleep through anything.

Fred chuckled and, aware of what she was thinking, cast a silencing spell around their bed. "Yes, you can open it."

He had barely finished speaking before she slid the key in and turned it, hearing the dull thud of the lock opening. He watched the excited gleam in her eye as she opened the box and hoped that he had done the right thing. He was worried when her eyes became watery and she didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry – I should have – I don't know what – Hermione, love, could you say something please?"

He could barely breathe as she turned to look at him, one hand straying to touch his bare chest and the other hovering over his gift.

"It's a…"

"I'm sorry, it's too much. I'll make it up to you-"

"Fred, shut up."

"What-? I-?" he rambled confusedly for a few seconds until she stopped him with a kiss. "Shutting up."

She turned her gaze back to the gift and traced along the silver band, "Now talk to me about this gift."

His mouth opened and shut a few times, unsure of what to say, until he finally decided to just start talking.

"Well, after Dumbledore told us about us being…"

"Married," she supplied.

"Yeah, that. I owled Mum because I thought that if she found out from someone else, she'd…you know…"

"Murder you."

"Yeah, that. She didn't owl back after that," he paused at her alarmed expression before hurrying to continue, "but Dad did! He just said that she  _couldn't_  write back, she'd start the letter then start blubbering about 'her baby growing up' and all that stuff."

Hermione laughed a little and turned back to the box.

"So then when I was thinking of what to get you for your birthday, I didn't want to get you sweets or a book or something like that…I wanted to get you something special…so I-"

"Wrote to your mother and asked for a ring?"

"Mmhm," he confirmed with uncharacteristic bashfulness. "It's Grandma Prewett's ring. It normally goes to the eldest son, but the Weasley side had that thing going on too, so Bill will get that the Weasley ring. Percy isn't…anyway; I'm the next in line."

She pulled her hand away from the ring and looked at him, "What about Charlie?"

Fred laughed a little and wound his arm around her more tightly, "Charlie isn't getting married to anyone, lifelong bachelor, that's what he's always said. I'm half-convinced he's more into dragons than he lets on," he concluded with a wiggle of his eyebrows. She giggled and he took her hands in his own, "But seriously, even if 'the prat' came back, this ring is mine. Well, it's yours. I love you, Hermione. You're my soul mate and…when we work all of this out…what I'm asking is…will you marry me?"

"But we're already-"

"In a  _proper_ ceremony! With a white dress and dress robes, maybe a muggle suit if you want me to wear one! I want to marry you one day and be fully aware that that's what's happening."

Hermione nodded, unable to say anything as he took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger. She gasped as it resized itself to fit her. Fred's next words were cut off when she pulled him into a fierce kiss, one that settled him back against the headboard as his wife twisted and straddled him, sitting comfortably in his lap as the morning sun shone into the dormitory. After a moment of shock, he smiled into the kiss and wrapped his arms around her hips, holding her in place. So far in their relationship, they hadn't gone further than kissing and had avoided talking about the hippogriff in the room; the completion of their bond.

Fred shook off that thought and concentrated on Hermione. He groaned at the feel of her hands on his chest, his shoulders, running through his hair. He smiled smugly and lazily when he heard her whimpers and moans as he did the same to her. It was a while later when a pillow soared towards the couple and they turned to see George smirking at them.

"Unless you want to write to Mum and tell her she's going to be a grandma, you'd better simmer down. This one needs to get back to her dorm," he nodded to Hermione as he pulled his shirt on.

Fred reached over to the nightstand to fetch his wand and cancelled the silencing spell around their bed. "What are you doing up so early?"

George shrugged and raked his hand through his wet hair, "Dunno, but then you two were mooning over that box and then you started snogging so I went and got a shower."

Hermione climbed off of Fred's lap with a blush and pulled on her dressing gown. "I'll see you at breakfast then," she kissed him quickly before moving out of the room with an embarrassed look at George.

Fred turned back to his twin who was looking at the door with a confused expression. "Was that…? Did she have Grandma Prewett's ring on?

Fred smiled, "Yeah, she did." He got out of bed and started heading to the bathroom when George stopped him.

"You just let her go back to the girls' dorm with our family ring on her finger?"

"What?" Fred asked, confused at what seemed like his brother's annoyance. "We're already married, I asked her officially. Are you annoyed with me?"

George drew in a deep breath, "I'm not annoyed that you've asked her to marry you, you idiot. That would be pretty dumb, considering that she's your soul mate-"

"Then why are you being like this?" Fred asked, raising his voice.

"She's gone back to the girls' dorm!"

"Yes! And?!"

"With a ring on her finger!"

" _So_?"

"This is why I'm the smart twin," George shook his head. He continued slowly, "Hermione. Has gone. With an engagement ring. Back to the girls' dormitory. That she shares. With the school's two biggest gossips."

Fred stared back at him dumbly. His mouth opening and closing with no words coming out as he realised what could happen.

"Figured it out?" George asked with a smirk.

"Shit."

"'Shit' is right, brother. Honestly, too busy ' _romancing it up'_  to remember that you'd need a concealment charm to keep Brown and Patil out of your business…"


	19. Celare Sententium

Hermione made it into the girl's dormitory without seeing anyone, which wasn't surprising given the early hour and Lavender and Parvarti's need for as much 'beauty sleep' as possible. The other two girls in the dorm often slept in as well, leaving Hermione free reign of the bathroom most mornings as she was an early riser, an  _even earlier_  riser as of late.

She hurried quietly over to her drawers and pulled out her underwear before grabbing her uniform before heading to the bathroom to get ready. She toed off her slippers and hung her robe up on the peg outside the shower stall, hanging her uniform up on the peg beside it and setting her underwear on the bench underneath. She stepped into the shower and turned it on, getting undressed as she waited for the water to heat up.

She was about to pour her shampoo into her hand when the gleam of her ring caught her eye, causing her to drop the bottle in alarm. What if someone had seen it? She knew that relationships in the wizarding world moved quickly, Mrs Weasley had mentioned that she and Arthur had only been together for 5 months before he had proposed to her. But even so, they had only been together openly for…what was it? One day? That was too suspicious; people would wonder why they were moving so quickly. More questions about pregnancy would be raised and people would definitely pay close attention to them. If anyone did any digging, their marriage would be discovered if someone just looked in the right filing cabinet in the Department of Marriages and Deaths at the Ministry. Granted, there would be a lot of files to go through and many, many Weasley's at that, but the evidence was there if someone wanted to go looking for it.

She reached her hand out of the stall, into the pocket of her robe and grabbed her wand quickly. Trying to remember any concealment spell she could, she stared at the ring, as if willing it to hide itself. When it didn't, and she heard the bathroom door opening, it finally came to her and with a wave of her wand and a whispered " _Celare Sententiam_ "; Grandma Prewett's ring shimmered out of sight, not even leaving a slight impression on her finger, although she could still feel the band where Fred had put it.

Hermione quickly washed her hair, realising that she had been in the shower panicking for quite a while and reached out for her towel and clothes from outside the stall. After about 20 minutes, she emerged from the bathroom almost completely dressed with her robe on her arm, teeth minty fresh and her hair dried and up in a messy bun. She walked past Lavender and Parvarti at the vanity table, avoiding Lavender's curious gaze once more as she went to her bed finished getting ready, slipping on her tie and a new pair of tights, then she picked up her bag, shoving in the books she needed for the day. With a quick and quiet "Bye" to the girls, she slipped on her pumps and left the dorm, walking down the stairs only to be met by a panicked Fred lying on the floor at the bottom, still in his t-shirt and boxers.

"Uhm…Fred…what are you doing?"

"Hermione! Thank Merlin! I needed to get to you right away but then the stairs and then the floor and here you are!" he said as he stood up and brushed the dust off of his shorts, seemingly unaware of the confused and admiring stares of the few others in the common room.

"Ok, but why are-"

He interrupted her by grabbing both of her hands and dragging her off to a corner of the common room away from the students that were heading off to breakfast so that they wouldn't be heard. Satisfied that they were alone, he took her hand in his and brought it between them, before looking very confused and then a little hurt.

"You took it off?"

Realising that Fred had been going through the same panic that she had felt in the shower not long ago, Hermione rushed to correct him.

"No! No, I didn't!" she grabbed his fingers and brought it to the place where her band was sitting, invisible to the world. "I hid it, I mean, I hope you don't mind but-"

"No," he chuckled, letting a sigh of relief leave him, "I was rushing to do the same thing. I didn't realise until George mentioned you going back to your dorm with our family ring on. If anyone had seen that-"

"They'd have a lot of questions," she finished.

"When did you realise?"

"Right before I washed my hair," she answered. "I've never worn a ring before, do I need to take it off? Will it tarnish if I leave it on in the shower?" she asked, taking her gaze away from the space that her ring occupied and looking back at Fred.

"No, you're fine," he said. "Mum said it's goblin made, virtually impregnable to anything harmful. I doubt your shampoo will do any harm to it," he smiled.

He wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her close before ducking down to kiss her. She blushed and pushed him back a little.

"Fred! We're in the common room!"

"And? You're my wife. My little Gryffindor bookworm wife-"

"I'm not little!" he raised an eyebrow. "Ok, compared to you, yes, I'm tiny," she conceded with a smirk before continuing, "You do realise that you're  _down here_  and still in your  _underwear_  and we start lessons in less than an hour, don't you?"


	20. Bubbles

Fred arrived at the breakfast table a little later than the others, and he was a little confused. George slid down the bench to allow his twin to take the seat next to his wife and carried on talking to Lee across the table. It wasn't this action that confused him, since coming back this year, he and George and Lee had almost always been with the Golden Trio, or at least Hermione, partially because of the need to keep close to her and partially because any letters from home meant letters from the Order and they all needed to know what was going on. No, the cause of Fred's confusion was perched on the table in front of Hermione.

"Whose is that?" He asked, pointing at the regal looking owl.

"Hm? Oh, this is -, he's Viktor's owl," Hermione replied, picking up a bit of bacon and feeding it to the owl before turning to Fred. "I have to go see Professor Flitwick before class, I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah, I'll see you," Fred said, accepting the quick kiss that she gave him and watching as she rushed out of the busy hall.

He turned back to the table and started putting his breakfast together, he only had 10 minutes before he needed to leave for class but, he was a Weasley after all, so he tucked in to his large breakfast and tuned out his surroundings.

It was silly. He'd have to be completely daft to be jealous. To be worried about Hermione and Viktor, whose owl was eyeing his sausages quite intensely, would be stupid. Hermione was his soul mate,  _literally_ , and they didn't half-ass it either, it was an all-out gold bond, they were married in the eyes of the Ministry and everyone in the know. She was his wife, not Krum's.

But that didn't stop that little nauseous feeling bubble up in the pit of his stomach. He remembered the talk about the two of them after the Yule Ball last year, seeing her giggle and whisper with Ginny in a way that he hadn't seen before, since she didn't exactly gossip with Harry and Ron. Didn't Angelina say that she saw Krum kiss Hermione before the Durmstrang lot left for home?  _Was that true?_ Angelina had been weird around him since that dumb ball, he had asked her because he knew that George fancied her but refused to make a move, apparently when they swapped for a dance George had realised that he was having more fun with Alicia and spent the rest of the evening back with his date. Maybe it was a bad decision, since they didn't talk outside of Quidditch that much anymore without it getting awkward, but at least it got George over his crush on her - and head first into a crush on Alicia that had gone nowhere. Maybe he should have a talk with George about his inability to make a move, although he might not be the best person to give advice since Fred's move was apparently 'get her angry, kiss her and accidentally marry her'. Yeah, probably best to leave it for a while...

But was Angelina right? Had Hermione been going out with Krum? If they had broken it off when he left for Bulgaria, then why were they owling each other now? But they couldn't still be together. Hermione would have said something before now. But she hadn't mentioned him kissing her, hadn't mentioned him at all...it was nothing. Hermione had friends,  _not many_ , but the friends she had, she cared for a lot. Of course she would write to her friend. Her friend that she might have kissed. Her famous Quidditch player friend with a stupid owl that was glaring at him.

It  _was_  ridiculous, but the bubbles were still there.

* * *

"So...got a letter from Vicky then?"

Hermione rolled her eyes as she slipped into her seat beside Harry, "yes, Ronald. I got a letter from Vik _tor_."

"And how does my brother feel about you and Vik _tor_  writing to each other?" Ron asked in a very Lavender-like tone of voice.

She shrugged, "Viktor is my friend, why would Fred be bothered?"

Harry and Ron exchanged an exasperated look, it had been close to five years since they had become friends with Hermione and she was still as clueless about the opposite sex as they were.

"You weren't  _just_  friends with him though," Ron started, dropping the annoying tone for what seemed like the first time in weeks.

"Well we went to the ball together, but-"

"And you were the most important thing to him when it came to the second task..." Harry trailed off awkwardly.

"It wasn't like that, and I  _wasn't_  really the most important thing to him, he had his friends from home with him just like Fleur did, I don't know why Dumbledore picked me," she told them, practising the wand movements for the charm that Professor Flitwick had set for them to practice.

"Whatever you say, Herms," Ron said, rolling his eyes and ignoring her irritated squeak at the nickname. "But you might want to make sure that Fred knows that you're just friends with Vicky," he said, emphasising the name. "You've only been going out for what? Two months? You two have lasted way longer than he did with his last girlfriend…"

Ron shrugged and turned back to his teacup while Hermione looked at Harry in a panic. He saw her unease and leaned away from Ron and whispered, "He's still not used to you two, he'll get over it. But you might need to talk to Fred and make sure he knows, I'm not saying he'll demand you stop writing to Krum or anything, he's not like that, but he's a Weasley and they tend to have short fuses."

"But with Viktor, it was never anything like it is with Fred," she started.

Harry grimaced, "I don't think I want you to explain that-hey! Ouch!"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Mr Potter," Hermione said primly. "I meant that I love Fred, I liked Viktor but never romantically, he's my friend. I don't think Fred will be jealous…"

"Ok then, if you're sure," Harry conceded with a smirk.  _'Brightest With of her Age, my arse.'_

**Author's Note:**

> This story is unfinished and will not be updated. I started it three years ago when I started writing fanfiction and have not been able to write anything new for it for a couple of years. I've posted it on here after years of negative reviews about keeping an unfinished story on fanfiction . net and no option to block guest reviews on that site. I do not like being insulted and called a whore for not updating a story that I began writing for fun in my spare time. Any readers who have come over from that site, hello, this one's kind of way better :)


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